Don’t read this while eating.
There’s a company in South Dakota (Beef Products, Inc. One of its plants is depicted above. It looks like a factory in a Terry Gilliam movie) that, eight years ago, decided to take beef scraps that had previously been thought fit only for pet food or making into cooking oi and inject those scraps with ammonia so they could be made into hamburger. The big fast food franchises (McDonalds, Burger King) went for it, and (off and on) the meat was even sold into the school lunch program. And guess what? It seems the ammonia thing, while it did succeed in putting ammonia into the food supply, did not succeed in destroying all the pathogens.
The New York Times has details about all this, and about the Department of Agriculture’s failure to deal with it, here.
It’s interesting how little visibility this company has online. This is from a Beef Products press release:
Most American consumers may not know what BPI[R] (Beef Products Inc.) Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings are, but this lean, low-fat, and flavorful ingredient is key in producing a range of lean, high-quality, cost-effective products millions of American consumers enjoy every day including fresh and frozen hamburger patties, taco meats, low-fat hot dogs, beef stick snacks, and sausage, just to mention a few.
BPI[R] Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings are found in most ground beef made in the United States. The trimmings are used by major packers and processors as an integral part of their ground beef or hamburger blends. And BPI’s trimmings are also used by the majority of QSR (quick-service restaurant) chains, HRI (hotel, restaurant, and institution) suppliers, and foodservice suppliers in the country. The trimmings are also approved for use in the USDA’s AMS (Agricultural Marketing Service) School Lunch Program. …
While BPI’s product is used in school lunch programs at blends up to 10 percent, most commercial grinds incorporating the product are at blend rates of 15 to 25 percent or more. Made to customer specs, most of BPI’s lean-beef trimmings are finished as 94-percent lean, lean-beef trimmings in 60-pound boxes. With consumer and customer demand increasing for leaner products, BPI plans to introduce a 98-percent lean product within the year.
I’ve actually been spooked enough to get my ground beef at Fresh Market in Ridgeland, which grinds its own on the premises.
Of course, that’s not going to stop me keeling over from ground beef at McDonald’s or BYB.
I did not realize that anyone with any education ate at McDonalds or any other cheap fast food restaurants. Maybe Ole Miss should mandatory a Heath & Nutrition course as a prerequisite for graduation!
Happy New Year
WS
“(CNN) — Mississippi has kept its U.S. heavyweight title for a fifth straight year, among both adults and children.
Adult obesity rates went up in 23 states in the past year, a survey shows.
The percentage of adults classified as obese went up in 23 states, but Mississippi, with 32.5 percent, stayed atop the latest annual rankings by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America’s Health. The same survey put the state’s adult obesity rate at 31.7 percent in 2008.
In addition, 44.4 percent of Mississippi children ages 10 to 17 are classified as overweight or obese, the study found.”
I am involved in litigation involving a BPI employee who died following an amonia release in a different BPI plant.What an operation!
How many (non-obese) kids ya got, Way?
Yikes! Thanks for the story link and the press release, too, which makes it sounds like this “reclaimed” beef has managed to make quite a footprint. I came across this post (thanks to a tweet from John Edge) just as I was wading through dozens of year-end retrospectives proclaiming 2009 the “year of the foodie.” This comes as a sobering but appropriate counterpoint.
Shucks, NMC, you just found the garde manger of the commercial beef slaughter industry. Every gourmet kitchen has one.
Johnnie’s Drive In in Tupelo: as long as they serve Johnnieburgers, I will eat them. I’ll never order the all meat burger there.
OMG Bleeeechhhh!
Please tell me backyard doesn’t do this.
I tried to figure out which chains did/didn’t, Kingfish, and didn’t see a clear answer. I would presume a chain did until contrary indications crop up.
Now sounds like a good time to attend one of the monthly vegetarian potlucks in Oxford. Check out Oxford Community Vegetarians on Facebook. Carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores welcome.
Until Congress establishes a single food safety agency (and no, the FDA doesn’t count), I fear problems of this nature will occur over and over again. And even with an agency, we can’t be absolutely sure meat is safe.
I have left the reigns of supermarket food for the most part, being not interested in the “Human Chow” they are largely giving people today. I have gone back to the local farms, buying all of my milk, eggs, beef, chicken, turkey, and vegetables all from local farmers. This supports diversity, supports our local farmers, supports our local economy, and you tend to know what you are buying and eating. From the supermarket, who knows what you are getting: are you getting genetically modified food, pesticides, melamine, phthalates, ammoniated beef trimmings, where did it come from, how was it made, and who made it? What do you prefer to eat? Natural food is better food.