Have Americans been slimed, again? The USDA's announcement on Thursday that school districts will be able to opt out of an ammonium-hydroxide treated ground beef filler known as both Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) and "pink slime" is not exactly inspiring confidence.
According to the USDA news release:
...due to customer demand, the department will be adjusting procurement specifications for the next school year so schools can have additional options in procuring ground beef products. USDA will provide schools with a choice to order product either with or without Lean Finely Textured Beef.
The USDA release doesn't elaborate on the type of choices schools will have. However, numerous news outlet have reported that schools ordering commodity ground beef will now get to choose either pre-made patties that contain LFTB or bulk ground beef, which does not. No information was provided about whether there is a price differential between the two options and the USDA did not respond to my query.
It should be noted that USDA commodities are only about 20 percent of the food purchased by the nation's schools. The other 80 percent are purchased through USDA-approved vendors. Today's news release did not specify that these vendors will have to carry LFTB-free ground beef. Apparently, pink slime isn't leaving our school system so quickly.
Longtime school food advocate Ann Cooper, the Director of School Food Services for the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado, believes pink slime will continue to be rampant in school ground beef next fall, in spite of the USDA's announcement. She notes that there are numerous obstacles to overcome.
First, almost every school in the nation has already ordered their USDA commodity foods for next year (ground beef included) and Cooper wonders if the USDA will actually allow schools to change their orders.
Second, Cooper believes that market limitations and peculiarities in how the USDA commodity food system works practically ensure LFTB beef in schools for the foreseeable future. "If a school district wants to purchase ground beef from an approved vendor, without LFTB, it's practically impossible because it's just not available -- most of the beef contains the low-grade filler," Cooper says. "Plus, if the school purchases bulk ground beef without pink slime, they still have to send it out to a third party processor like Tyson to be made into hamburgers, meatballs, etc. Currently, the third party vendors do not have to use the actual beef ordered by the school -- they could use any beef. So a school could order LFTB-free beef sent to the processor, and it could get back hamburgers and meatballs with the ammonium-hydroxide processed filler."
Even if the USDA can fix the third party processor problem, Cooper doesn't think that every school will be able to afford the processing cost of the filler-free bulk ground beef. This raises the specter of less affluent districts having to opt for the LFTB pre-made patties while the more affluent can afford to send the bulk ground beef for processing.
While the National School Lunch Program serves over 5 billion meals yearly, there's a much larger problem that the USDA failed to address in their announcement. After learning last week from an ABC News report that 70 percent of supermarket ground beef contains pink slime, consumers have been trying to learn if their grocery stores sell ground beef with LFTB filler. While the USDA has been mum on the issue, Congress has taken an interest. New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez today reiterated that he wants to work toward a labeling requirement for LFTB so that consumers can avoid it if they wish, according to The Lunch Tray blogger and pink slime petitioner, Bettina Elias Siegel.
The past week's pink slime blow-up was likely a wake up call for many Americans unfamiliar with Big Food's sway over the contents of our food supply. It's mind-boggling that the USDA, lobbied heavily by the beef industry, never mandated a labeling requirement for LFTB. We now know why industry fought so hard. Americans are repulsed by pink slime and would avoid it in droves if it were labeled. It's pretty clear that in the U.S., the economic well-being of the food industry trumps the consumer's right to know and the wholesomeness of our food.
John Turenne, the president and founder of Sustainable Food Systems LLC, which works with schools to create healthier, sustainable food programs, nicely summed up this past week's collective anger: "Agribusiness is corrupting society with processed garbage," said Turenne. "The fact that chemicals like ammonia are being used on so much of our food, without our knowledge, is infuriating. Let's stick to real food."
Follow Nancy Huehnergarth on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nyshepa
Michael Greger, M.D.: Pink Slime: All About the Green
than other trim already destined for ground beef. We are able to capture this lean, nutritious, wholesome beef through our process where it would otherwise be lost. It seems environmentally irresponsible to let this beef go to waste.
Our food safety intervention is unparalleled as Nancy Donley stated in her article. http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/03/in-defense-of-food-safety-leadership/ We utilize ammonium hydroxide, which is naturally occurring or added to 2700 different items in grocery stores today not limited to beef. Unfortunately, false reports on our beef are not only taking a shot at food safety but are also weakening the food supply in general.
And your sustainability argument is silly. Beef trim never went to waste before BPI came along with the pink slime process – it simply had less profitable uses such as dog food and oil.
BPI and U.S. grocery chains, please do the right thing and LABEL all ground beef that contains "pink slime." Let consumers decide what they want to purchase.
http://www.fdaimports.com/blog/pink-slime-11-facts-you-dont-know-about-the-american-meat-supply/
(For example - how many people in positions of authority at the USDA have some kind of tie to the meat and dairy industry?)
This type of activity occurs in most agencies of the government.....big surprise!?!
One wouldn't think that working around corrupt politicians all the time would spread such corruption, would one???
I was shocked. Can anyone with a straight face claim that any of these things have any nutritional value whatsoever...?
Wow. That's some double-speak there.
I wonder if rich people's children eat Lean Finely Textured Beef in their school lunches? Or if Mitt's wife drives in one of her Caddies to pick up some Lean Finely Textured Beef at the local grocery?
I wonder if the executives at Monsanto eat Lean Finely Textured Beef...?
Just a few things to wonder this fine, foggy morning.
Why--because parents won't pack a lunch for them? I will never let my daughter go to a public school, what a terrible lesson to learn that parents care so little for their children that they believe that they have no other options.
There are many reasons why a parent would send his or her children to public schools; sheer laziness and/or lack of care for the child is probably not the first set of reasons as to why....
You must be incredibly sheltered if this is a surprise to you.
And the majority of those unfortunate that you're talking about have food stamps--but they won't use them to buy items for their kid's lunch? Absolutely ridiculous.
...or so that was the explaination.
You can't protect your child from a peanut while they're in a public (or even private) school.
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/03/in-defense-of-food-safety-leadership/
LFTB does nothing to make our ground beef supply safer according to experts. It's rigorous testing and recall of contaminated ground beef that has improved the safety.