Still Eating Fast Food? Read This!
Ammoniated Beef Treatment Questioned
Despite being linked to repeated incidents involving potentially deadly E. coli and salmonella, a major U.S. meat treatment method continues to be used with government approval, The New York Times reveals.
Beef Products, Inc., which supplies processed meat to McDonald’s, Burger King and the U.S. school lunch program, developed a process eight years ago that involves injecting beef with ammonia to banish the gastrointestinal bug E. coli bacteria from burgers. A study by the South Dakota-based company showed the process also killed salmonella, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture endorsed the idea, enabling the company to use fatty trimmings previously limited to pet food and cooking oil for humans.
The ammoniated trimmings are processed into “a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips” and used in a majority of hamburgers nationwide, the story says.
The USDA exempted Beef Products from routine testing of hamburger meat begun in 2007, The Times reported.
But government and industry records obtained by The Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, “E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment,” the newspaper said.
We find it quite interesting that the beef industry thinks that refuting this story on the basis that their “ammoniated beef” is E. coli free is going to convince the public to eat their beef. In our opinion anyone who was not aware that the beef industry is injecting beef with ammonia should take note.
There is also the widespread practice of packing processed meat with carbon monoxide to hold the red color. Consumer reports found that the common process of packaging meat in a mix of toxic gases including carbon monoxide maintains the red color for a month or more, long after the meat has spoiled and would have been thrown out.
While we don’t advocate a strict vegetarian diet, at very least buy only butcher shop fresh cut beef and cook it well. The common methods of “cleansing” mass produced processed beef products are not fit for any healthy diet, and you can easily avoid these food born toxins by visiting your local super market and only buying butcher cut fresh lean beef for your family.