Pink Slime in School Lunches

Pink Slime, more formally known as "lean, finely textured beef," is at the center of a growing controversy playing out in the media in recent weeks since The Daily and ABC News exposed this highly irregular beef processing practice. Who would ever guess that such a controversial beef filler would end up in the National School Lunch Program menu we have been feeding our children for years?

According to an Associated Press article by Michael Hill, this common beef filler has been regularly added to school lunches in accordance with current USDA standards, despite the bacterial risks for contamination of meat products with E. coli and salmonella. The other health risk associated with this practice by the South Dakota-based Beef Products, Inc., involves chemical exposure of these meat products to a chemical "puff of ammonium hydroxide gas," as revealed by ABC News. Public outrage is growing, and is making the industry take a hard, second look at the ethical basis for, and the untoward health repercussions of this product additive. Now, as current beef product preparation practices come into light, parents, teachers, advocates and consumers of school lunches alike are insisting on the right to correct such questionable beef products. Public and private/parochial schools alike are involved in this issue, as US schools come together to challenge this potentially harmful status quo practice within the food industry. Clearly, we must be diligent and vigilant in our efforts to monitor what our children are eating, including, and especially now, through the National School Lunch Program. To date, school districts have had no choice in whether or not to accept foods that contain pink slime. However, public outcry and lobbying surrounding this "product enhancer" has been unprecedented and highly effective, as evidenced by the fact that and starting in the fall of 2012, school districts will be able to choose beef products with or without the now legendary, "Pink Slime." It is noteworthy that regulators within the USDA and the food industry at large in the US continue to stand by the addition of pink slime to beef, defending these inexpensive beef additives as meeting federal safety standards. However, it is equally concerning that pink slime additives are not required to be included on food labels, thereby consumers can, if uninformed, unwittingly eat foods with questionable products added that many would not even feed their pets. It has been estimated, to the surprise of many Americans, that as much as 50%-70% of processed beef in the US contains the filler "pink slime" that is chemically treated with ammonia. It is noteworthy, too, that last year, in response to public protests relating to the practice of adding pink slime to their beef, the McDonald's Corporation eliminated the practice of adding pink slime or "lean, finely textured beef," to their beef products. We can only hope that the USDA regulators follows suit.

Adele M. Gill, RN, BSN, Copyright 2012 Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM

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