Apparently, earlier this year, McDonald's stopped their use of what's called "pink slime". For my international blogfriends (by the way, isn't it so cool that I have international friends?! SERIOUSLY!), pink slime is basically composed of inedible cow parts (typically found in cheap dog food) mixed with ammonia, to kill salmonella and e. coli bacteria. Apparently, the ammonia is also a component found in homemade bombs. Just in case you were planning on making some bombs tonight.
Here's what it looks like:
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| Sorry if this disgusts you. :\ |
I've known for a few months that pink slime is frequently used in school lunches. That's not much of a surprise, considering the quality of my school's lunches. Schools need food that can be made quickly, cheaply and easily. But fast food places too? Millions of people buy burgers at McDonald's. The fact that they just stopped this year is disgusting. It makes me sick to realize how many burgers I've eaten from McDonald's in my lifetime, and never did I even consider the quality of the components that made up those burgers.
Pink slime is approved the Federal Food and Drug Administration, but the catch is that we have no way of knowing which meat products have it and which don't. It's technically called a manufacturing process, so it isn't included in the ingredients list, and I think it's referred to commonly as "lean meat". McDonald's dropped its use of it because they want to keep up with international meat standards. The United States is the only country in the world that uses it, from what I've read.
I don't even know what to think. I feel like I've been cheated. I feel like it's impossible to eat healthy anymore, with stuff like this. I'm trying to cut back on processed food in general, because I feel like that's a major factor in why people are so unhealthy these days. America has the highest obesity rate in the world for a reason. The fact that even grocery stores sell beef with this stuff in it just makes me wonder what's safe for me to eat and what isn't? Maybe there are no immediate effects, but I believe there are some likely long-term effects on overall health. I've been considering becoming a vegetarian for a long time now, because I believe that it's a healthier way to live. Maybe it's time to make that change?
I don't know, I'm just kind of alarmed. Here's one of the articles I read. It may be somewhat biased, but it helped add on to my understanding (plus there's a video): Source
I wouldn't expect much less from a corporation that exploits the world to give kids cheap toys and fattening burgers. I also hear McDonalds in the US were using some other form of meat to preserve French fries, which is just disgusting. I wonder what they've been preserving them with all the time it took to fly them to Europe. I am a vegetarian, and find it increasingly difficult to eat in a popular restaurant. I guess being different comes at a price.
ReplyDeleteBTW, congratulations on having so many international readers! There's a plus to living on a God-forsaken, rain-infested island (Ireland) because 98% of my followers are foreign to me. The blogosphere is just so cultured :)
That is really horrible. I wouldn't be surprised if England used it as well.
ReplyDeleteUrgh. Urgh. Urgh.
You know, the pink slime would actually look tasty if it was some sort of ice cream. But to think that it's meat?! Yugh!
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't surprise me. Their chicken nuggets are only recently made from actual chicken meat. (I know this because they advertise it plus a friend of mine's college friend who was alergic to chicken meat could eat the nuggets without a problem.) In general those food places are not healthy (as if we needed to be told that) and I try to avoid them if at all possible. The only fast food place I eat at now is A&W and that's only if I have no other choice.
ReplyDeleteI saw that picture on facebook before and I was so disgusted I felt like I had to vomit. I didn't read this post because I was too scared of what you might say, so forgive me.
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