McDonalds Finally Removes Pink Slime From Hamburgers

April 10, 2012

Natural News

By Alexander Frantzis

“Before you give McDonald’s praise for this decision, remember, the only reason they pulled pink slime from their burgers is because the public caught on. They care nothing about the ‘food’ they serve or the health of the people who eat it. Never eat fast food – ever.” –KTRN

Following years of hard-hitting journalism highlighting the adulteration of hamburger meat with ammonia, McDonalds recently announced it had at last stopped doing so late last year.

Numerous activists including celebrity chef Oliver Stone, and health ranger Mike Adams had spoken out against the practice. By sanitizing discarded disease ridden meat with ammonium hydroxide (also used in glass cleaners, explosives and fertilizers) inedible meat can reenter the marketplace.

In Stone’s own words “Basically we’re taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest form for dogs and making it ‘fit’ for humans.”

Due to the widespread unsanitary conditions within the meat industry, preventing severe bacterial contamination of meats is nearly impossible, especially for any discarded scraps. Food poisoning during bacterial outbreaks is the most visible symptom of this problem, and in turn the sole focus.

To quote Adams: “This is all fine with the USDA, which endorses the procedure as a way to make the hamburger beef “safe” enough to eat. Ammonia kills e.coli, you see, and the USDA doesn’t seem to be concerned with the fact that people are eating ammonia in their hamburgers.”

Ammonium Hydroxide’s questionable safety
To address this conundrum, the USDA has classified ammonium hydroxide as “generally regarded as safe,” meaning, like GMOs, its assumed lack of toxicity is not up for debate. A cursory Google search however shows otherwise, listing issues including permanent eye damage, carcinogenic properties and increasing the size of hormonally sensitive organs .

McDonalds however was quick to distance themselves from any negative PR prompting their decision, simply stating, “At the beginning of 2011, we made a decision to discontinue the use of ammonia-treated beef in our hamburgers. This product has been out of our supply chain since August of last year. This decision was a result of our efforts to align our global standards for how we source beef around the world.”

Click here for the full report.

‘Pink Slime’ Manufacturer Files For Bankruptcy

April 5, 2012

Activist Post

By Madison Ruppert

“It serves them right for trying to sell us tainted and dangerous food.” –KTRN

AFA Foods, a leading American processor of ground beef, has filed for bankruptcy, citing the wave of negative media coverage surrounding their so-called “pink slime” product.

The huge amount of media coverage that has recently been devoted to the Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings (BLBT), better known as “pink slime,” can be chalked up almost entirely to the attention of countless activists across the United States.

The USDA was a major purchaser of the pink slime product, recently purchasing some seven million pounds of the highly unappetizing product.

This pushed over 250,000 Americans to sign a petition online which demanded a complete stop to the use of pink slime in school food.

The USDA’s response was especially lackluster given the fact that even fast food chains who are infamous for using incredibly unhealthy products renounced the product.

This is hardly surprising given the fact that supposed regulatory bodies are increasingly run by those who they are supposed to regulate as evidenced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refusing to ban Bisphenol-A (BPA) as well as spying on the emails of employees who expose the agency’s malfeasance.

Click here for the report.

‘Pink Slime’ Is Now Found In 70 Percent Of The Ground Beef At Our Grocers

April 4, 2012

Natural News

By Tony Isaacs

“Solution – stop eating beef. Or if you must, grind up your own organic grass fed steak for ground beef.” –KTRN

Would you knowingly eat ground beef which contained scrap meat items such as muscle connective tissue which had been sprayed with ammonium hydroxide? Would you want your children to eat such ground beef in their school lunches? According to recent revelations, if you or your children eat ground beef there is a strong chance that both may be happening.

Last week, former United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist-turned-whistleblower Gerald Zirnstein revealed that 70 percent of the ground beef sold at supermarkets contained the fake-meat additive which is commonly referred to as “pink slime”. This revelation came on the heels of reports that the USDA is purchasing 7 million pounds of the product for school lunches in public schools.

“Pink slime” is taking over ground beef at our grocers and schools
“Pink slime” is made by gathering beef waste trimmings, simmering them at low heat to make it easy to separate fat from the muscle, and using a centrifuge to spin the waste trimmings to complete the separation. Next, the mixture is sent through pipes and sprayed with ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria. Finally, the product is packaged into bricks, frozen and shipped to grocery stores and meat packers, where it is added to most ground beef.

The beef trimmings are particularly susceptible to contamination and were once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. However, Beef Products Inc. (BPI), the makers of “pink slime, commissioned a study which reportedly demonstrated that the ammonia process would kill E. coli as well as salmonella. Ever since the study, use of “pink slime” in ground beef has increased.

In 2009, the New York Times reported that despite the added ammonia, tests of “pink slime” across the country revealed dozens of instances of E. coli and salmonella. According to the Times, E. coli was found three times and salmonella 48 times between 2005 and 2009, including two contaminated batches of meat totaling 27,000 pounds.

Zirnstein, who first coined the term “pink slime” in a USDA memo, told ABC news “It’s economic fraud. It’s not fresh ground beef. …It’s a cheap substitute being added in.”

Click here for the full report.

Pink Slime’ is Now in 70 Percent of The Ground Beef at our Grocery Stores

April 2, 2012

Natural News

By Tony Isaacs

Would you knowingly eat ground beef which contained scrap meat items such as muscle connective tissue which had been sprayed with ammonium hydroxide? Would you want your children to eat such ground beef in their school lunches? According to recent revelations, if you or your children eat ground beef there is a strong chance that both may be happening.

Last week, former United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist-turned-whistleblower Gerald Zirnstein revealed that 70 percent of the ground beef sold at supermarkets contained the fake-meat additive which is commonly referred to as “pink slime”. This revelation came on the heels of reports that the USDA is purchasing 7 million pounds of the product for school lunches in public schools.

“Pink slime” is taking over ground beef at our grocers and schools

“Pink slime” is made by gathering beef waste trimmings, simmering them at low heat to make it easy to separate fat from the muscle, and using a centrifuge to spin the waste trimmings to complete the separation. Next, the mixture is sent through pipes and sprayed with ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria. Finally, the product is packaged into bricks, frozen and shipped to grocery stores and meat packers, where it is added to most ground beef.

The beef trimmings are particularly susceptible to contamination and were once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. However, Beef Products Inc. (BPI), the makers of “pink slime, commissioned a study which reportedly demonstrated that the ammonia process would kill E. coli as well as salmonella. Ever since the study, use of “pink slime” in ground beef has increased.

In 2009, theNew York Timesreported that despite the added ammonia, tests of “pink slime” across the country revealed dozens of instances ofE. coliand salmonella. According to the Times,E. coliwas found three times and salmonella 48 times between 2005 and 2009, including two contaminated batches of meat totaling 27,000 pounds.

Zirnstein, who first coined the term “pink slime” in a USDA memo, told ABC news “It’s economic fraud. It’s not fresh ground beef. …It’s a cheap substitute being added in.”

Zirnstein and fellow USDA scientist Carl Custer both warned against using what the industry calls “lean finely textured beef,” but they were overruled by their government bosses. The “pink slime” does not have to appear on the adulterated ground beef labels because, over objections of its own scientists, USDA officials with links to the beef industry labeled it meat.

The woman who made the decision to approve the mix is former undersecretary of agriculture, Joann Smith. Her decision led to hundred of millions of dollars for BPI.

“The under secretary said, ‘it’s pink, therefore it’s meat,’” Custer told ABC News.

When Smith left the USDA in 1993, she was appointed to the board of directors for BPI’s principal major supplier where she reportedly made at least $1.2 million over the next 17 years. The USDA said that, while Smith’s appointment was legal at the time, she could not have immediately joined the board under current ethics rules.

News of the USDA’s plan to bring 7 million pounds of “pink slime” to school cafeterias nationwide comes just weeks after the government announced new guidelines to ensure students are given healthier options for school meals. Notably, the USDA purchase comes after fast food chains such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Burger King have discontinued use of “pink slime.”

A public outcry against the “slime” is perhaps led most prominently by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who has also waged war successfully against flavored milk in Los Angeles schools.

Learn more at Natural News

Junk Food, Fast Food Proven to Cause Depression

April 2, 2012

Natural Society

By Mike Barrett

“If you already don’t have enough reasons to stop eating garbage, here is another one.” –KTRN

According to recent research conducted by scientists from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the University of Granada, both junk food and fast food consumption ignites depression. In fact, the study, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, shows that those consuming fast food are 51 percent more likely to be depressed than those consuming very little or none of the health-damaging food. What’s more, depression risk was found to increase with the more fast food and junk food consumed.

The study sample involved 8,964 participants, all of whom have never been diagnosed with depression and have never taken any medication for depression. After a six month assessment, 493 became diagnosed with depression or began taking antidepressant medications — which have previously been shown to actually make depression even worse. The current results support what the SUN project, a lifestyle tracking program, have found in 2011 where a 42 percent increase in depression risk was found with those consuming fast food. Additionally, the increase in depression risk was just as high with the consumption of baked goods and junk food.

The research adds further evidence as to why everyone should avoid fast food at all costs. Representing some of the lowest-quality food on planet earth, fast food is loaded with health-wrecking ingredients, while the food itself is cooked in the most unhealthy manner possible. The meat used is conventional, and thus loaded with antibiotics, growth hormones, and up until recently was loaded with ammonia-treated ‘pink slime’ scrap meat.

Click here for the full report.

Pink Slime Factories Shuttered After Massive Public Backlash

March 29, 2012

Natural News

By Jonathan Benson

“If stinks that people are losing their jobs, but the company making pink slime deserves it.” –KTRN

For several decades now, the conventional beef industry has secretly been lacing ground beef products with an industrial, ammonia-laced byproduct known as “pink slime,” a disturbing fact that recently came to the forefront of national attention after Food Network chef Jamie Oliver first drew attention to its existence. And consumer backlash has been so strong ever since that a number of supermarket chains, restaurants, and even schools have decided to stop supplying it, which has caused its primary producer, Beef Products Inc. (BPI), to close three of its four manufacturing plants.

USA Today and others are reporting that Dakota Dunes, South Dakota-based BPI is temporarily closing its Waterloo, Iowa; Garden City, Kansas; and Amarillo, Texas plants for an indefinite period of time as a result of widespread consumer rejection of pink slime products. Workers at these plants will continue to receive pay and benefits for the next 60 days, but it is unclear what will happen after these next two months expire, should the plants continue to remain closed.

Meanwhile, BPI is launching an aggressive public relations campaign to fight back against its critics, which includes claiming that pink slime is “100 percent beef,” and that it is a highly-nutritious and safe product. And many in the media are jumping onboard this propaganda bandwagon by spinning the situation back against consumers, who are technically victims that have been been duped all these years into buying ground beef products that were secretly adulterated with pink slime.

In case you missed the original story, pink slime, which is officially known as “lean finely textured beef,” is basically a low-cost ground beef filler composed of beef scraps that are mashed, processed with a chemical ammonia solution, and turned into an unappetizing pink paste, the pictures of which have circulated the internet in recent months (http://www.naturalnews.com/035255_pink_slime_USDA_school_lunches.html).

This pink slime has been added to roughly 70 percent of all ground beef products since the 1990s, but few were aware of it. Pink slime is obviously not labeled on ground beef packages, and the only way consumers can know for sure that they are not consuming it is to buy local or organic ground beef, or to watch the beef being ground fresh before buying it.

Click here for the full report.

Why You Should Avoid Fast Food At All Costs

March 26, 2012

Natural Society

By Mike Barrett

“Once again – more evidence that fast food is the last thing you should ever consider eating.” –KTRN

It is no secret that the average American diet is in completely in the slumps. Consuming packaged foods, fast food, artificially enhanced products, and especially low quality cheap food is the norm, but is it any wonder that being overweight while also falling victim to a host of illnesses is also the norm. Being raised in this era of poor health makes it difficult to know what is truly healthy and unhealthy. Food has drastically changed since decades ago, and so parents often aren’t aware of the severe decline in food quality. Fast food in particular is one of the primary reasons for the drastic health decline seen today.

If you haven’t already, take a couple of hours to watch the films Super Size Me or Fast Food Nation. After watching these films, you can see first hand how fast food causes severe damage to your body – even if you don’t consume it for every meal of every day like in one of the films. Fast food is nothing but a concoction of harmful and health-damaging chemicals which can easily be understood if you were to think for a moment how any restaurant could offer a double cheeseburger for only $1.

Most recently it was uncovered that these $1 cheeseburgers, along with the rest of McDonald’s’ beef and chicken, were actually harnessing ‘pink slime’ scrap meat covered with ammonium hydroxide. Not only does this fake meat provide no nutritional value at all, but it is chemically contaminated from ammonia, the toxic cleaning agent found under the sink. The meat is actually fat trimmings and connective tissue that are separated from the bone – scrap meat that is not fit for human consumption. The ammonia treatment is in response to the danger of contamination from salmonella or E. coli, but the scrap meats themselves are more likely to contain pathogens. Despite the chemical treatment, the meat is still in the line of fire for contamination.

Additionally, McDonald’s McNuggets contain 7 different ingredients making up the ‘meat’, many of which contain sub-ingredients. Instead of using real meat, the ingredient list utilizes sodium phosphate, safflower oil, wheat starch, dextrose, and autolyzed yeast extract – a particularly dangerous substance very similar to the toxic MSG. Along side with these ingredients comes the use of dimethylpolysiloxane, a silicon substance used as an anti-foaming agent and often found in breast implants and silly putty.

Click here for the full report.

‘Pink Slime’ (Beef Parts Paste With Ammonia) Good For Kids, Says Beef Products, Inc

March 19, 2012

Natural News

By Scott Morefield

“Of course Beef Products Inc. would say pink slime is healthy – they sell it.” –KTRN

In perhaps the most amazing display of unmitigated gall since the Journal of Pediatrics declared mercury ‘good for kids,’ (1) Beef Products Inc. (BPI) told The Daily that its “lean finely textured beef,” treated with ammonia, is good for America’s schoolchildren. Last week The Daily broke the news that the federal government plans to buy beef containing over 7 million pounds of ‘pink slime’ over the next year.

“Including LFTB in the national school lunch program’s beef products accomplishes three important goals on behalf of 32 million kids,” BPI spokesman Rich Jochum told The Daily. “It 1) improves the nutritional profile, 2) increases the safety of the products and 3) meets the budget parameters that allow the school lunch program to feed kids nationwide every day.” (2)

So what’s the real reason?
With their first and second stated reasons being patently absurd, it really just comes down to the third, the almighty dollar. By adding the beef fat and trimmings, known to contain higher levels of E. Coli, salmonella, and other pathogens, then adding ammonia to kill said pathogens, they are able to save 3 cents off the cost of making a pound of beef. (2)

So by adding ammonia to a product that was previously only sold to dog food and cooking oil suppliers, (3) BPI is able to decrease their costs by mixing it with beef and feeding it to children.

Want to vote with your wallet and forgo the ‘pink slime’ infested meat? It might be difficult. Janet Riley, senior vice president of public affairs for the American Meat Institute recently made her case against labeling, telling ABC News, “What you are asking me to put on the label, its beef, it’s on the label, it’s a beef product, it’s says beef so we are declaring … it’s beef.” (3)

By Ms. Riley’s logic, dog food is ‘beef’ too. Perhaps she is using the same standards McDonalds uses when it calls its chicken nuggets ‘chicken.’ (4)

Click here for the full report.

Pink Slime: It’s What’s for Lunch in America’s Schools

March 6, 2012

Take Part

By Megan Bedard

“If you have kids, they should never be buying school lunches. Brown bag it and give them healthy food.” –KTRN

Forget the corn dog and pizza quarrels. Healthy school lunch advocates have a bigger problem on their plates: a 7 million-pound order of connective tissue and beef scraps doused in ammonia, set to hit school lunch trays in coming months.

Despite being dropped in December by McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King, the infamous concoction—known as “pink slime”—is still in high demand, thanks to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) purchase that will keep it on school lunch menus. Yes, keep; it’s been there for years and is set to stay.

The substance is smooshed into meat patties and served up as hamburgers, but the meat product is made from parts of cows “normally destined for dog food and rendering,” reports The Daily.

Microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein and retired microbiologist Carl Custer say the goop is “a high risk product.” The two conducted a study on pink slime in the late ’90s, when JoAnn Smith—known for being buddy-buddy with the beef industry—was serving as undersecretary for the George H.W. Bush administration. (Smith was president of both the Florida Cattlemen’s Association and the National Cattlemen’s Association). At the time, Custer sounded the alarms for food-safety concerns, but the USDA ignored his warnings, Custer says, soliciting a second assessment of the slime’s safety.

Because the meat scraps are particularly vulnerable to contamination, South Dakota company Beef Products, Inc. came up with the idea to soak the stuff in ammonia to kill E. coli and salmonella in 2001. The USDA stamped it with approval and shortly thereafter, the slime was available for public consumption.

Click here for the full report.

Meat Glue and Pink Slime. What Evil is Lurking in Your T-Bone?

February 15, 2012

Activist Post

By Gaye Levy

“Go ahead – keep eating conventional meat from factory farms.  We triple dog dare you.”  –KTRN

Some things simply defy my senses. This is especially true when it comes to food. After all, you might remember the saying among us old-time computer geeks?

Garbage In = Garbage Out

And, thus, the same with the food that serves as fuel for our bodies. Eat the good stuff and you feel good. Eat the bad, and, well, eventually you are going to feel bad too.

With this in mind, I set off on a tear when I read that glue was being used by some restaurant chefs to hold meat together in a cohesive lump. Did you read that correctly? G – L – U -E. Like that stuff in a white bottle you used as a kid to hold stuff together. Like that grown-up stuff you use to make repairs around the house.

Gucky, yucky glue holding your food and more specifically, your meat, together. Let me explain.

Where’s the Beef?

As reported by a local Seattle TV station, many chefs are opting to glue leftover bits of meat together to form a log that can later be carved up as steaks. The glue that they use is something known as transglutaminase; a natural-occurring protein made from the blood of pigs, cows and chickens. Now I suppose that to some, an affordable steak is an affordable steak.

But to me? I would prefer at the very least to be aware of this bonded meat, and be given the opportunity to make an informed choice to eat it – or not – ahead of time.

So just what is this Transglutaminase (TG) or Meat Glue?

Known by the brand name Activa GS; meat glue, is a natural enzyme that has the ability to glue protein-containing foods together. When raw meats are bound with TG, they typically have the strength and appearance of whole, uncut muscles. Cripes. They even sell this stuff on Amazon.

Now I can understand that when you purchase and consume a hot dog or a sausage, you know you are getting mushed up bits of meat and by-products. But please, do not serve me a nice, juicy cut of supposed steak that is really a bunch of diced up beef scraps. That is simply not appetizing in the least!

Add to that the potential for bacteria to grow at the fused glue points, and we have an unhealthy as well as unsavory situation. (By the way, the USDA recommends that “glued” meats be cooked to a temperature of 165 degrees or more.)

But more to the point, as I said before, we have a right to know what we are putting in our mouths and our bodies. Remember Garbage In = Garbage Out.

Click here for the full report.

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