What's In Our Meat and Poultry?

Posted by: Anne HolmesAdministrator

What's In Our Meat and Poultry? - 03/30/12 06:37 PM

So who besides me has been grossed out by these "pink slime" stories in the news lately?

Here's an article about it if you haven't been keeping up to date.

I'm going to go check on my local grocery chain's website, to see if they have any news on what's in their beef.

I don't know anything about the hamburger I have been buying at my local Piggly Wiggly. But I DO know that I used to buy my chicken at Wal-Mart. It was branded as Tyson's and I figured that was a fine, big name brand.

But recently I started buying my chicken at "The Pig." The brand I have been getting there is called "Amish Farm" and it is antibiotic, additive and hormone free. Don't know if Tyson's can also say that.

But I can tell you that the "Amish" chicken tastes SO MUCH better than the Tyson brand, that it is the only kind I will buy at this point.

Who else besides me remembers actually going to a butcher and having him cut your meat for you on the spot? I want to go back to that.
Posted by: chatty lady

Re: What's In Our Meat and Poultry? - 03/30/12 09:00 PM

Those were the days Anne, but I can't find any butcher shops where that's all they sell anymore...None anywhere in Nevada. I wonder aougt the bigger cities like Chicago?
Posted by: yonuh

Re: What's In Our Meat and Poultry? - 03/31/12 12:45 AM

I grew up going with my mom to the butcher, and the greengrocer, and the grocer. Went every day to get food for the next day. Now I don't eat meat and only buy hormone/antibiotic-free or organic produce and other groceries. I read somewhere that something like 98% of all antibiotics sold in this country go into the animals we eat every day. Part of the reason I stopped eating meat eons ago.
Posted by: jabber

Re: What's In Our Meat and Poultry? - 03/31/12 01:34 PM

I'm with U! I eat very little meat!
Posted by: Anne HolmesAdministrator

Re: What's In Our Meat and Poultry? - 04/11/12 06:35 PM

Columnist Barbara Shelly, from the Kansas City Star, weighed in on the "pink slime" story last week, and I just saw her post today. I loved the headline: "Pink Slime a Product of Our Cheap Beef Economy."

And I wanted to share a couple of her comments:
Quote:
Somewhere between the optimistically named “lean finely textured beef” and the over-the-top “pink slime” has got to be a more trustworthy definition of what is going into that hamburger.


And:

Quote:
Americans love cheap meat. Demand for inexpensive beef was what caused processors to devise a scrap-salvaging process in the 1970’s. The ammonia rinse was added about 10 years ago to combat concerns about dangerous bacteria in ground beef.

To get rid of the controversial additive would raise the cost of hamburgers and other products. The beef industry estimates it would have to slay 1.5 million additional head of cattle to make up for loss of the filler. About 600 jobs have been lost as the manufacturer of the additive closed three of four plants.

“We’re a pink slime-based economy!” Jon Stewart exclaimed on the Daily Show.

For sure, we’re a cheap meat economy. And as long as that’s the case, the industry will never really change. The additive slimed as pink slime may disappear, but something else will replace it. Cattle will still be corn fed in close quarters. Workers will continue to do dangerous jobs for low pay. Rural America will continue to give way to factory farms. Food-borne illness will remain a critical problem.

Americans say they want reforms, but they have yet to show they are willing to pay for them in the checkout line.


And if you'd like to read her whole post, here's a link.

By the way, in case I never mentioned this in earlier posts, I heard from the regional manager for the Piggly Wiggly grocery stores in Wisconsin and Illinois where I buy my meat. He assured me none of their hamburger has ever contained pink slime. And it never will contain additives.

I was delighted to know I have a reliable source of ground beef. Have you checked your favorite grocery store's butcher? I think it's a good way to get the food we want - vote with our wallets...
Posted by: Mountain Ash

Re: What's In Our Meat and Poultry? - 04/12/12 10:10 AM

I shop at a Master butchers a family firm.Never buy anything I cant see whole...no sausage or adulterated meat.There are strict controls here since BSE and foot and mouth disease for butchering.

Alas big frozen food firms use whatever they like...coating in crumbs and finger food size..some children have only had the pink slime in their "chicken whatevers" added to a falling economy cheap food that kiddies eat are a mass market seller
Far better to have soups with veg..and some decent meat or chicken added.Good health is enhanced by what we put on the plates of our children.
same goes for bread...artisan bread is superior but obviously more expensive...
Posted by: yonuh

Re: What's In Our Meat and Poultry? - 04/12/12 01:18 PM

Unfortunately, many people can't afford the higher prices for the good food. My partner and I are fortunate that we can afford it and consider it an investment in our health. There is something wrong with our society when buying a meal at McDonald's or Burger King is cheaper than cooking good food at home. Here in our town, there is a push to eat healthy thanks to a grant from the Feds. Schools have started community gardens, and several low income neighborhoods have started them too. It's a start.