Pink Slime Found In 70% Of Supermarket Ground Beef In ABC Investigation (VIDEO)

The price of beef has risen dramatically in recent months and years. That's led many consumers to shift away from steaks and towards cheaper hamburgers and meatloaves when they've had a hankering for cow. But record highs mean that even ground beef is getting pricier. What's a supermarket, looking to keep the price of ground beef competitive, to do? Use the cheapest possible kind of ground beef: the much-reviled "pink slime."

According to a recent "ABC World News" report from Jim Avila, 70% of ground beef sold in supermarkets contains the ammonia-treated sludge, which is the the product of a method for salvaging meat scraps from otherwise unusable parts of a carcass.

Avila was tipped off to the startling figure by a whistleblower at the USDA -- who says he has quit his job out of disgust with the product.

The level of usage is consistent with a 2009 report on pink slime by the New York Times. The paper wrote that "a majority" of ground beef in America contained the substance, which is manufactured by a company called Beef Products, Inc.

Since then, fast food companies have discontinued their use of the product en masse. Pink slime is still in the mix of the ground beef used in school lunches, however.

If you want to avoid pink slime altogether, then, and don't want to eat at McDonald's, you may have to buy your own meat grinder. Or stop eating hamburgers.

Watch below for Diane Sawyer on Jim Avila's report:

Comments

[AayusHealth]

09:41 AM on 07/18/2012

You forget to mention you can completely avoid pink slime simply by buying ORGANIC.

[jeffkol]

07:00 PM on 04/06/2012

Just curious do any of you eat chicken? Do you actually know what is in it? Do a little research and I think you will be very surprised as to what is considered 100% chicken...give me all the "pink slime" !!!

[Peter Clack]

09:19 AM on 04/05/2012

I prefer Soylent Green, personally.

[congressive]

03:32 PM on 04/05/2012

Mmmm. Long pig.

[marriet]

09:07 AM on 04/05/2012

Guess my Mom knew what she was doing picking up a round steak and having it ground for her right there. Go Mom. As for me, I'm vegan.

[818]

11:47 AM on 04/04/2012

I'll make over 1.2 million dollars in 17 years as well... It's called an average of $70,000 a year- which isn't that much.

[Missy K]

11:21 PM on 04/02/2012

Greeeeat that's sooo nice..vegetarian lifestyle here i come!

[mem60]

09:43 PM on 04/02/2012

Since I AVOID grocery shopping as much as possible, I usually can get by shopping for two only two or three times a month by planning ahead and freezing what I can. As I shopped today, my chain market was one of the ones claiming they would not sell the slime, and it might explain why they didn't have any of the fresh burger patties that I prefer nor even the frozen ones that I haven't bought in eons. They did have fresh ground and lot's of those "chub" packages. Yikes!

[Janelle Rodriguez]

10:26 AM on 03/29/2012

WWW.BEEFISBEEF.COM learn the truth and get the facts! LFTB is 100% BEEF!!!

[SanJoaquinValleyGrower]

04:07 AM on 03/15/2012

all the more reason to shop through places like
eatwild.com & localharvest.org

[averagemaninthecountry]

11:30 PM on 03/12/2012

My wife usually has me cut all the fat out of a round steak befoe she puts it in a stew.
Always, there are little chunks of meat in the fat trimmings. It would be even more with a brisket.
Lower value meats are sometimes converted to hamburger. The centrifuge process allows separation of the fat from the muscles resulting in a leaner food. Take your choice, buy a high fat hamburger and clean up the grease spatters or buy a leaner hamburger with lean beef trimmings for the same price.
Everything, everywhere has the opportunity to become contaminated with bacteria. What is the last time you had a surgery in a sterile operating room and the surgeon did not prescribe an antibiotic.
The ammonia gas is ALL about food safety and 17 years has proven that it is not a problem to the consumer.
Interesting that ABC did not include this in the video. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/statement-from-american-meat-institute-president-j-patrick-boyle/

And who is behind making this a news item now?

[JoeRandom]

06:04 AM on 03/16/2012

Yeaaaaaaah... Never mind that about a third of Americans are obese. Nope, no problem at all.

[tripas de leche]

12:11 AM on 04/02/2012

They know not what they eat.

[racetrak3]

09:06 PM on 03/12/2012

ever open a fresh ground "pink colored 2lb pack of hamburger...only to fing out it's pink on the outside...an grossly brown in the middle ? There putting colorant on it to make it look good..I brought it back to the super market an told them I'll never buy meat there again. so now..I go to the butcher shop..

[LastOfaDyingBreed]

12:37 PM on 03/13/2012

That statement is completely false considering I'm a local butcher in Manchester. The reason why its pink on the outside and brown on the inside is because a pigment called myoglobin. When the surface of ground beef and beef cuts is exposed to air, the oxygen of the air combines with the myoglobin to form oxymyoglobin, which is bright red in color. This color change doesn't mean the meat isn't fresh or edible. It's just a natural occurrence when red meats are exposed to oxygen.

In layman's terms no oxygen = no red, its a chemical reaction not a form of "colorant"

[KingCashio]

04:15 PM on 03/12/2012

Like everything else in America, lower the quality, raise the price, cry because consumer confidence is at an all-time low. Sounds like another "Obama's fault" moment.

[tripas de leche]

12:12 AM on 04/02/2012

This one is actually a little secret the beef industry did not want the public to find out about.

[Dr JAY Veeoh]

11:38 AM on 03/12/2012

Extra lean, over 80% pink meat,no more than 0.5 % trans fat and many natural occurring vitamins and hormones.And also :ammonia !!
Water content : no drip.

A president's choice.

[Kestin Page]

09:32 AM on 03/12/2012

Reasons why I buy organic locally sourced beef from a local farmer

[tripas de leche]

12:13 AM on 04/02/2012

You will live longer.

[Dr JAY Veeoh]

09:00 AM on 03/12/2012

Pink slime, now A grade ?

How much longer can this society exist ?

[orion52]

11:45 AM on 03/12/2012

Before the FDA they would grind up rats and god knows what else into meat and sell it. SOOO I'm sure we can survive this.... even though it's REALLY STINKING GROSS!!!

[tripas de leche]

12:13 AM on 04/02/2012

If you notice, most of it is coming down with cancer.