I’m in a bit of a Twitter war with McDonalds {my kids giggle as they read this}. You see, I’ve only recently found out they put Pink Slime in their hamburgers. While they have ceased this disgusting additive about a year and a half ago, my kids were eating McDonald’s hamburgers as part of their Happy Meals when the Pink Slime was an ingredient. So I’m angry. Angry at the deception. And disgusted by the tactics McDonalds will take to offer 99 cent hamburgers.
Then I learned that McDonalds’ restaurants in Mexico and Canada never included Pink Slime. Many in these regions were quick to note that their hamburgers are not sourced from the USA. I can’t say I blame them. The USDA seems to think that Pink Slime is a perfectly wonderful additive. In Mexico and Canada, they think Pink Slime is not fit for human consumption and use it for dog food. Honestly, I wouldn’t feed Pink Slime to my dog. It would give him cancer!
Why did McDonalds stop including Pink Slime? It was chef Jaime Oliver who persuaded them in this video:
Here’s more about Pink Sime from The Young Turks:
What is Ammonium Hydroxide that is used to disinfect lean beef trimmings?
Ammonium hydroxide is a colorless liquid chemical solution that forms when ammonia dissolves in water. Ammonium hydroxide is found in many industrial products and cleaners such as flooring strippers, brick cleaners, and cements. Ammonium hydroxide can also release ammonia gas into the air.
Ammonia alone (not ammonium hydroxide) can be found in many household items such as detergents, stain removers, bleaches, and dyes. The symptoms and treatment for ammonia exposure are similar to those for ammonium hydroxide. Information from NIH Medline Plus Note that the ammonium hydroxide is NEVER included as an ingredient in any beef product that contains beef slime.
Why? The USDA says it’s naturally occurring. True, but it’s a waste product that the body produces. And there is no research that has been done to test what happens when you add additional ammonium hydroxide to the human body. At what quantities does this become unsafe? No one knows. And no one seems to care. Not the USDA and certainly not the fast food restaurants that include Burger King and Taco Bell.
The issue arises when ammonia gas comes in contact with water, like the water within meat. This interaction produces ammonium hydroxide or “ammonia water”.
Now we have a hazardous gas turned to liquid form that can wreak havoc on the human body.
The FDA lists ammonium hydroxide as generally regarded as safe (GRAS). Their committee reports; “although there have been no significant feeding studies specifically designed to ascertain the safety threshold of ammonium compounds as food ingredients, numerous metabolic studies have been reported in the scientific literature.
Extrapolation of these findings to the concentrations of ammonium compounds normally present in foods does not suggest that there would be untoward effects at such levels.” (http://www.accessdata.fda.gov)
So, this means there is no study of actual safety thresholds in food ingredients, and its safety is based on an extrapolation of data based on the normal presence of ammonium hydroxide in food, not added. Aside from the kidneys and liver, our digestive system suffers from the ammonium hydroxide. from Natural News
That is not a very rigorous scientific conclusion!
Is Pink Slime in your child’s school lunches?
Pink Slime is made from fatty beef trimmings that are slightly heated and then centrifuged to spin the fat off and recover the meat. The lean, “finely textured” beef bits are treated with ammonia gas to kill harmful pathogens like Salmonella or E. coli and then flash frozen.
Processors and retailers then thaw and mix up to 20 percent of ammoniated beef into ground beef products. As of May 18, states requested over 20 million pounds of ground beef products that do not contain LFTB and around 1 million pounds of beef products that may contain the product. The department estimates that beef that does not contain LFTB will cost school districts around 3 percent more next school year. Does your state use Pink Slime in school lunches? Check here.
What Can You Do to Avoid Pink Slime?
It’s not easy but you have to know your meat source. Pink Slime can be in any hamburger product, unlabeled, from chile to patties. Personally, I’m not eating at fast food restaurants ever again.
What Else Should You Worry About?
Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 have been linked to hyperactivity in kids, cancers, and allergic reactions.
Pink Slime and McDonalds
As for my Twitter war, I learned some interesting things. First McDonalds said:
@pragmaticmom Pink slime is a myth. Don’t believe it. That made me a little angry so I suggested this:
@McDonalds You, McDonalds USA Execs, should be forced to feed the Pink Slime to your kids while we watch. By the bowlful. #OnlyFair I wonder if there is any connection to autism or cancer.
@ArizonacakeKay @hgdmfs @McDonalds Do you think #PinkSlime causes #Austism or #Cancer? #ClassActionLawsuit
This was an interesting tweet:
Kia Robertson @eatingarainbow27 May
9-year-old asks McDonald’s CEO why his company targets kids with unhealthy food at shareholders’ meeting http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2013/05/24/9-year-old-asks-mcdonalds-ceo-why-his-company-targets-kids-with-unhealthy-food-at-shareholders-meeting/
Two McDonalds employees (^Bob and ^JH) then stepped in but revealed only part of their names. When I asked for their full names, they mysteriously disappeared, never to be heard from again.
PragmaticMom @pragmaticmom7 Aug Did you know you were eating Ammonium Hydroxide with your @McDonalds hamburger? http://sulia.com/channel/parenting/f/2fbafa76-e0f3-44ca-9f52-2b6aef9c2f68/ … @McDonaldsCorp
McDonald’s Corp. @McDonaldsCorp8 Aug
@pragmaticmom Hello and thanks for your concern. But this is not true: http://mcd.md/nKdHP ^BOB
PragmaticMom @pragmaticmom10 Aug
@McDonaldsCorp ^BOB and ^JH What are your full names? Are you pretending to be a real person under the veil of anonymity?
Finally, the Twitter trolls appeared, and all at the same time. It was as if they were paid to shut me down! Imagine that?!
Here’s one example:
Tony Wood @Tonystopskony 16 Aug
Sounds like @pragmaticmom needs to get laid! @McDonalds puts out information for anyone WANTING it. Truth is people eat what they want!
McDonalds gave me the link to their Pink Slime press release and I really took issue with it:
McDonald’s USA: Discontinued Use of Select Lean Beef Trimmings (SLBT)
McDonald’s does not use lean beef trimmings treated with ammonia, what some individuals call “pink slime,” in our burgers, and hasn’t since 2011. Any recent reports that we do are false.
Prior to 2011, to assist with supply, McDonald’s USA, like many other food retailers, used this safe product but it is no longer part of our supply.
“McDonald’s USA, like many other food retailers, used this safe product” This is not a good argument with a mom. It’s like saying, “Mom, I did it because everyone else was doing it.” They also didn’t respond when I asked them what the percent of Pink Slime was used and when this practice began.
What did I learn from my Twitter war with McDonalds? I think social media makes them very, very nervous. And a single individual can make a big difference … not so much me but one chef proved the power of one.
Thank you Jamie Oliver!
ORIGINAL: By Low Pay Is Not OK. Sign the petition here.
image of Pink Slime from Dallas Observer
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Parenting Village on Pinterest.
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Wow! It seems like everyday there is some new hazard to worry about. Thanks for sharing this post. I had never heard about this.
Hi Barbara,
I think that’s why I’m so mad. McDonalds kept the Pink Slime under wraps to make a few extra $ in order to sell $1 hamburgers.
according to one of those McDOnalds tweets, pink slime is a myth. Yet there’s a press release that says they discontinued using it. So…they discontinued using a myth or is it a myth that they discontinued using it.
SO glad i don’t eat beef anymore. So regretting those years that i did eat beef and had those McD burgers. And so regret eating them growing up.
The only thing we do eat from mcdonalds is the chicken nuggets and fries. But now I’m so grossed it I can’t imagine going to mcdonalds again. so disappointed in them too.
Hi Vanita,
McDonalds adds beef flavor to the fries here in the United States; no other international McDonalds does that and they have no intention of changing it. The chicken nuggets were tested and really gross things were found in them like rat’s fur. I showed my kids the video from Jaime Oliver and they refuse to eat McDonalds ever again. I wonder what McDonalds will do if the kids of this generation opt not to eat there? Mine will never step foot in a McDonalds again. They are too grossed out.
Wow! Way to go on your twitter war. What an educational post. I’m thankful that we rarely ever eat fast food, now. I guess there is one plus to having a child that is sensitive to gluten – it limits your restaurant choices but I guess in a good way.
Now to find a local butcher….
🙂
Hi Cool Mom,
I really regret ever “treating” my kids to happy meals when they were younger. I wish I had known about the pink slime. I feel like McDonalds deliberately hid that from me and I’m very, very upset about that. I’m glad your kids had limited exposure to pink slime from fast food. The plus side of a gluten allerg, indeed!
Far be it for me to stick up for McDonald’s and the argument that “everyone else was doing it” doesn’t go too far with a mom. However, I think the bigger issue is that in this country, governmentally we support ANY opportunity for businesses to cut corners. Food dyes are banned in Europe, but here that kind of governmental oversite is considered socialism. It’s true that popular outcry can change business practices (as with pink slime) but not until people are aware of it. And we want quick, easy, and especially cheap. We want to be able to spend $ .99 for a hamburger even though that’s a ridiculous price in today’s economy. And while I don’t like the ingredients in fast food (and tell my son), we still to there when we are in a hurry, which is more often than I like.
I heard over the weekend that in Europe, M&Ms are made with natural dyes whereas here its the artificial ones. There are signs that M&Ms are moving to use natural dyes here, probably to get ahead of the curve on that one. But I feel confident that right behind it, there will be some other less-than-desireable food additive in many popular foods due to the demand for low cost. I wish I could say this will change, but even as the economy improves, there will always be some who simply cannot afford to eat out and the fact is we have an eating out culture. As our finances have plummeted, our own eating out has gone from weekly to monthly to almost none, and from “real” local restaurants to fast food. Thankfully we are at that almost none to balance it out.
Hi Dee,
It IS sad that the USDA and other government oversight agencies who are supposed to protect the U.S. consumers do not do their job. Good point about artificial dyes too. I’m also banning Aspartane, the artificial sweetener in my house. I guess it’s up to each individual consumer to do homework to figure out what is safe. We still haven’t banned parabens like the Europeans and it’s a known cause of cancer. I think we were last to ban BPH plastics too.
Eewww, you make me want to move back to Europe. Good thing that while we are all meat-eaters, we don’t care for hamburgers.
Hi Natalie,
I wish we had never eaten at McDonalds when my kids were little. We used to go there as a special treat so they could get a happy meal even though I knew fast food is not healthy. I wish we had gone to a pizza place or bakery cafe instead. These days, my kids refuse to eat at McDonalds after watching the video.
Mia-
While I respect your right to ask questions and challenge what you think is right, your approach was childish at best and hostile at worst. I personally take offense at this:
“@McDonalds You, McDonalds USA Execs, should be forced to feed the Pink Slime to your kids while we watch. By the bowlful. #OnlyFair I wonder if there is any connection to autism or cancer.”
Really Mia? Don’t you think that’s a bit immature? Could you not have started a thoughtful dialogue before you started the below the belt punches??
To state that you want to watch their children be force fed is repulsive.
And what corporations state their full names on their Twitter handle? They don’t. And considering that you call yourself a social media consultant you should know that.
It seems to me that McDonald’s was trying to have a discussion with you. It also sounds to me that you would hear none if it. Which is a shame because I think your readers would have learned so much more from a more civilized exchange.
Hi Melanie,
I feel that I was tricked into feeding pink slime to my children over the years of happy meals during which the executives of McDonalds knew what was going into their products and, I would, imagine, did not feed this crap to their children.
This ommission of information about pink slime is egregious and the way McDonalds is justifying their use of pink slime is reprehensible.
As for stating their full name, I asked for their full name. Do companies state it or not? I’m not actually sure. I use my full name when I represent my company, Aquent, which is the largest minority owned staffing company globally. I don’t hide behind a veil of secrecy and lies. Also, when I asked specific questions, they just disappeared. That was my issue. They could have stated, due to blah blah blah policy, we can not reveal our last names, but we’d be happy to answer your question as to when we started adding pink slime to our products and why we chose to in the United States when the rest of our international counterparts did not.
And my question is real: is there a connection between pink slime and autism or spectrum disorders? Or pink slime and cancer. Did you know that there has never been a study on the effects of consuming ammonium hydroxide as an additive?
So were my own children force fed pink slime? No, but they were unknowingly eating it for years and years. How much? I don’t know. I want to know:
— When did McDonalds start adding pink slime to their products?
— What percent of the product contained pink slime?
— How many pounds did consumers eat during the time pink slime was included.
This is the discussion I’m trying to have with McDonalds, which, they choose not to reveal.
Do I think the McDonalds’ excutives should feed pink slime to their kids? I absolutely do. Why not? They fed it to my children and your children too. They can do it in the form of their hamburgers. The point is that if they are secretly adding additives that they would not give to their own children, why are they selling it?
To know that me and my children CONSUMED pink slime is repulsive. I want to know how much of this stuff I have consumed UNKNOWINGLY. Had they revealed from the GET GO that they use these additives to bring the price down and let the consumer decide would have been a different story.
So the point of my post is that I AM VERY ANGRY AT MCDONALDS. I DO NOT TRUST THEM. Do I want a thoughtful response from them? I want the truth. I want statistics on Pink Slime consumption from their products. I understand that they were shamed from a potential embarassing backlash into getting rid of it and hoped it would quietly disappear without the consumer ever being the wiser. And that is not right.
Ultimately, I want an apology. Like this: “We at McDonalds understand that we were not forthright in letting our consumers know that we added lean finely textured beef (LFTB) to our products etc.”
My question to you Melanie is, “Would you have eaten McDonalds hamburgers if you knew pink slime was included? Would you have let your children?”
I would not and I had the right to know about it. Now, it’s too late. We already consumed untold pounds of it.
How would you call McDonalds a treat? I feel bad for your kids if your letting them eat McDonalds. Why do you take personally offense of what MY MOTHER says about McDonalds? Sure you may think she is hostile and childish but why would you leave such negative comments? It is rude and not very nice so I hope you never call your self a pragmatic mom. At least my mother doesn’t feed me McDonalds.
Mia-
My kids eat at McDonald’s. I eat at McDonald’s. Do we eat there every day? No. But it is a treat for my family. So that should answer your question. I have no issue with you asking McDonald’s questions about their ingredients. That is your right. It’s the way that you approached it that I take issue with. For a “pragmatic mom” you weren’t very pragmatic about it. Actually, you were hateful and venomous. If I were a brand, I wouldn’t even take the time to acknowledge that you said anything at all. Because it’s really hard to communicate with someone who is in attack mode. Maybe if you had acted like an adult instead of a petulant child, you would’ve gotten further. And as far as your twitter war goes, I would hardly consider that a war. I’d call it a rant. A one sided rant that will evaporate into the air by the time I’m done hitting the submit button on this comment.
Hi Melanie,
It’s clear to me that most people including me and my husband did not realize that we were eating Lean Beef Trimmings mixed with Ammonium Hydroxide whenever we treated our kids to McDonalds.
This may not upset you, but as a consumer that goes to a lot of trouble to remove pesticides, hormones, artificial dyes, imitation sugar and other potentially cancerous substances from our diet, not knowing that this was included until seeing Jaimie Oliver’s video is very upsetting to me. And, that McDonalds knew that other countries including Canada and Mexico make this food additive illegal for human consumption, yet add it to their American product lines is reprehensible.
So, it’s that I am asking McDonalds questions about their ingredients; it’s that I was never informed during the decades that I ate their products.
As for hateful and venemous, those are good adjectives. I try to protect my children from things that will harm them and when I am unable to by omission of information, the adjectives I would use would include enraged, incensed, and wrathful.
When you think about Super Size Me (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Size_Me), I wonder if some of the ill effects on his health were due to not just the poor nutrition but the added Ammonium Hydroxide.
I think I am going to organize a study on a possible correlation between autism and added ammonium hydroxide.
War versus rant … just more semantics Melanie. I’m really concerned about transparency. This song and dance about the Global Supply Chain is so ridiculous. I’m surprised that you buy into that. Why didn’t McDonalds simply add in Lean Beef Trimmings back into the rest of the Global Supply Chain? And honestly, you know that McDonalds cares about Twitter impressions and whether it fades to nothing as soon as you hit the submit button, I’ve sent out several million negative Twitter impressions on Pink Slime and McDonalds already so that’s why they care.
Why? Because it was illegal in those countries. And how long did they include it in the U.S.? I’m guessing decades.
Your support of McDonalds is quite admirable and you must really be impressing them with your loyalty. I’m curious, what did you think of Jaimie Oliver’s video?
Melanie,
What a coincidence … you leave your first comment on my blog ever and it’s a trollish one and you are a paid ambassador for McDonalds. http://melanieinthemiddle.com/2013/10/ronald-mcdonald-house-charities-2.html
You are a Ronald McDonald House Charity ambassador, not a spokesperson for McDonalds Melanie, so I don’t really understand why you did this. Or did Rick Wion, the social media director for McDonalds, ask you to leave me a trollish comment?
Is that how social media is done at McDonalds these days? I’m not surprised you get attacked, Rick Wion. That’s pretty dirty playing.
I am not impressed with McDonalds and how you handle controversy that you create yourselves by putting disgusting ingredients into food that you sell.
Mia,
Because we are Facebook friends, I sent a note to you there to discuss but haven’t heard back from you. I’d like to clarify some issues with your post.
You know I’m the social media director at McDonald’s as well as a father of two young boys. I’ve fed hamburgers to my children for years. I’ve been to our beef processing plants and seen how hamburgers get made. I can tell you with certainty that McDonald’s never “hid the truth” or has ever tried to deceive our customers. In fact, McDonald’s was one of the first restaurants to label ingredients that go into its food. These ingredients are made available in the restaurant, on the packaging, on our web site, via email, txt and mobile app. So to claim that execs have been trying to cover something up just simply isn’t true.
The truth is that select lean beef trimmings, which is the official name for what some call “pink slime”, has been recognized as safe not just by the USDA, but other health and food safety experts for years. For many years, it was very common in the American food industry and was used in many other restaurants and as well as beef sold in grocery stores across the country. McDonald’s was one of the first to stop using this, but not because of concerns with safety, but to improve consistency in our supply chain globally. We stopped using it before the topic gained traction nationally through social media and our decision had nothing to do with Jamie Oliver. Additionally, the first picture on your post is alleged to be McDonald’s food. It is not. It is simply a hoax.
Our Twitter team enjoys talking with our customers and providing the answers about our food and our brand. But when dialogue quickly becomes combative, not sure that it is reasonable to expect a brand to respond. Each member of our Twitter team has a profile (which they sent to you). They do not provide their last names for security reasons. I’m sure you can understand the challenges of balancing personal privacy and safety with openness – especially as many of us also have families. I personally have been rushed on stage at conferences twice and had my family attacked on Facebook simply because I work for McDonald’s – it’s an unfortunate reality, but a reality nonetheless.
Between your local market contacts and relationship with me personally, I’m surprised you didn’t reach out to someone to discuss your concerns and questions before sharing unproven, unscientific and inaccurate information about autism, etc. I’m honestly disappointed that you didn’t reach out with some specific questions before writing a piece that looks to start an argument rather than a dialogue.
All that said, if you would like to discuss more about our ingredients and sourcing, I’d be happy to chat. Our ingredients story is better than you realize.
Director of Social Media
McDonald’s USA
Hi Rick,
Thanks for coming by and providing some transparency. I do have some questions:
1) Why is it that Canada and Mexico never included the Lean Beef Trimmings (aka Pink Slime) in McDonald’s hamburgers in the first place? It is because their countries do not allow Lean Beef Trimmings for human consumption?
And if McDonalds was aware that this is not allowed in Canada and Mexico for safety reasons, why include it in the United States just because our food standards are so low?
2) When did McDonalds first include Lean Beef Trimmings in the U.S. Operations?
3) What percent of a hamberger was composed of Lean Beef Trimmings?
4) How many tons of Lean Beef Trimmings did McDonalds purchase … over a year?
5) As for “hiding” the Lean Beef Trimmings, I will tell you that as an informed consumer, that I only just found out recently via Jaimie Oliver and even so, still months after McDonalds discontinued its practices. It was never clearly disclosed to me as a consumer.
For example, I go to Wild Willy’s Burgers in Watertown and they ask me what kind of beef do I want in my children’s hamburgers. They give very clear choices, grass fed, organic etc. I would have appreciated the choice fron McDonalds that said, “Lean Beef Trimmings included or not?” This is what Lean Beef Trimmings are. This is the process by which they are made consumable (ie washed with Ammonium Hydroxide).
Where was this disclosure? In fact, what disclosure are you talking about that I should have realized that Lean Beef Trimmings were part of my hamburger?
6) Why do you think that the USDA deems Lean Beef Trimmings safe for American humans but Canadian and Mexican food and safety officials do not? Can you please steer me to any research that shows that Americans are less affected by Ammonium Hydroxide than Canadians or Mexicans?
7) Regarding your “consistency to your global food chain.” When did Jamie Oliver release his show on Pink Slime? When did McDonalds decide to make their global food chain more consistent? How long was their global food chain inconsistent? Why did it not bother them during that duration?
I understand the PR game, believe, I did PR for my own company for years. The spin doctoring on this issue is tricky for McDonalds because you are all trying so hard to convince the consumer that Lean Beef Trimming is an ingredient additive that you are proud of. This “global food chain consistency” line is such a song and dance. I’m surprised that you think American consumers are that naive.
I would add that there are no studies that show that the addition of a WASTE product that humans produce is safe as an additive. I haven’t found any research and I searched for hours. The question is what is the tipping point? How much do you have to consume in a certain period before it becomes dangerous. No one knows.
Is there a connection to autism or cancer? I don’t know but something is causing this. The U.S. Government thinks artificial dyes and parabens are safe for consumers when this has been banned in Europe for years. The same for BPH plastics. It’s pretty clear that special interest groups hold sway in our systems and that consumers are safe only to the lowest denominator.
I understand that it must be hard to work for a company that is perceived to be unethical but that is clearly a choice you make for yourself. I hope they pay you well!
Hi Rick,
You have me thinking about my “unproven, unscientific and inaccurate information about autism, etc.” so here’s how I would map out whether or not there is a causal relationship between Lean Beef Trimmings and autism. I guess those days spent premed in college and working at Harvard labs really is coming in handy.
1) I would get data from the CDC in the United States as well as the equivalent from Canada and Mexico on the incident of autism diagnosis for the past fifty years.
If the data is available, I would track this by zip code. I’m sure that won’t be very hard to decode. Oh gosh, that statistical medical paper that I collaborated at the Long Beach Veterans Hospital for an endicronogist was very similar. How convenient that this data is readily available from the CDC (now back in business) unlike the study that I worked on where I had to pull it all from old medical records that went back decades.
2) I would map out the incident rate of autism diagnosis by zip code during that 50 year period.
3) I would overlay a map of fast food restaurants in all three countries and then see if there is a visual correlation between fast food restaurants (specifically Burger King, McDonalds and Taco Bell) and autism diagnosis.
4) I would have my friend Amy the run a statistical analysis on the data. R squared — my limited stats class is coming back to me. You’d want to check correlation based on r squared. Luckily, she’s a Phd in Stats with an MD from Harvard. This would be for her to determine if she has the data.
5) What would incidate an correlation between autism and Lean Beef Trimmings would be the outcomes from Mexico and Canada, given that they never included this in their fast food offerings.
If there is a visual indication of this, it would be pretty easy to then raise money to get a more rigorous study funded. My friend Alice has an uncle at the National Science Foundation. My friends Helen and David are both environmental science professors and I’m sure they would have ideas of how to get a study funded if the initial data shows a visual correlation.
Once a study is done, it won’t be hard for the lawyers to step in with a class action law suit. At the deposition, information that McDonalds won’t want to reveal like in what yaer were Lean Beef Trimmings added? What percetage of the hamburgers contained it? etc. will come out.
So yes, I said very clearly that I do not know the relationship between the two but it’s not that difficult to determine if there is causality. A pre-med could pull the data or a medical researcher in the autism field might be interested. I wonder how many doctors are in this field in the Boston area? I’m guessing a lot.
I would not imagine that McDonalds is an expert in the autism field nor would you be interested in such a study, but thanks for giving me this idea. Someone should do it. It’s really not very expensive, difficult, time consuming or expensive. You don’t need data from McDonalds on when you started adding Lean Beef Trimming though this study may indirectly reveal it.
Perhaps some of my readers would know the right person who would be interested.
I love everything Jamie Oliver has done to improve healthy eating habits – around the world!
One of many things I miss about living in Europe is the higher priority the EU gives to regulating food safety. I really wish the USDA would adopt their standards!
After the “pink slime” news a while back, I gave up all restaurant burgers except one: Juicy Burger. They source local, high quality beef and boy can you tell! I also refuse to buy it from any supermarket chain. I’m a new devotee of a local market/butcher shop. Great fresh ground meats and cheaper too! Plus they wrap it for me for the freezer and make up my special 2/3 lb packs.
Hi Cheryl,
It’s good to know that Juicy Burger makes hamburgers with integrity. I wish we had one near us but we have something similar called Wild Willy’s Burgers. I won’t buy meat from a supermarket chain either; especially knowing now that pink slime can be included in ground meat and hamburger patties and not be specifically labeled as such. Ingesting high levels of Ammonium Hydroxide makes me nervous.
Hello Mia,I would first like to say thank you for raising this issue. You present an intelligent argument for your cause and I appreciate that. I’d also like to thank you for doing the research and calling Melanie out on her affiliation with McDonalds. They have no idea what this makes them look like to the everyday consumer. Conniving is one word I think works well. I haven’t been a McDonalds consumer for about two years now for common sense reasons. As you stated it is ridiculous to purchase an entire hamburger for 1 dollar and expect a quality product. Speaking of hamburgers, I like how Rick Wion specifically stated he fed his children hamburgers rather than saying I’ve fed my children McDonalds for years. Makes you think. I am eager to read Ricks response to the questions you’ve posed. I do have to agree with Rick when he says that a warning is posted on McDonalds food. It is. Just not on anything an adult would pay any attention to. The warning is posted on a happy meal item. Disappointing. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your argument and will be back to your blog. Keep it up. you’ve got an avid supporter in me!
Thanks so much for your kind words of support Danyale. It’s been a big brouhaha, as you might imagine. I had no idea that McDonalds posts a warning on their food — there is something wrong with that and I am not suprised that it’s not easy to find nor front and center in their PR or website.
Rick is the consumate professional, so his words are well chosen. Does he feed his kids McDonalds hamburgers now that the pink slime is no longer included? Not sure.
As for having paid McDonalds blog ambassadors leave aggressive and abrasive comments in defense of something indefensible is just a bad social media strategy on the part of McDonalds or their PR firm. I would question that as a marketing message; I would think that they screen their bloggers more carefully or do media training.
I contacted a member on their Board of Directors with that specific complaint so I wonder if it will have any effect on their social media going forward.
Mia- I appreciate you exposing McD’s and those that are paid by them to promote their CRAP food on social media.
I truly think McD’s thinks its ok to feed people and children their franken-food (because that’s what it is people!) because science has yet to prove that it harms humans. My own uncle is a top level executive (he in the top 7 as far as executives go) at Kraft Foods and he fully believes the food his company produces should be in every kitchen in America. He is a chemist and believes the fake food they manufacture is totally harmless. I guess my point is that we are all convinced of something and while McD’s may not think they are peddling crap to consumers because nobody has proved otherwise (yet), they in their eyes innocent of anything wrong. Just because our government won’t hear of cracking on big companies or researching what all these chemicals really do to our bodies doesn’t mean that they are harmless. I for one am a parent and we rarely visit fast food including McD’s for that very reason.
Hi Rachel,
I like your Franken-Food description! We work with a family nutritionist and the first thing to go was processed foods. I just really am horrified by additional chemicals as food additives.
I honestly think that it’s the special interest groups with political $$ that keep our food safety standards so low. Who would have thought that Mexico would have higher food standards than the United States? But they never allowed pink slime to be sold as food for humans.
Thanks so much for your words of support. They mean a lot of me.
Melanie the troll works for McDonalds! Nice catch, Mia. I agree with what your daughter said on the matter, why should Melanie, or anyone else, be personally offended by YOUR feelings? Especially since most of us (McDonalds payroll excluded) absolutely agree with you! I haven’t eaten at McDonalds in years, but as a child I ate there frequently. I, like you, was in the dark about some of the gross things this company was doing, and I, too, feel angry about it. I’m glad that more people are becoming aware of what goes into fast food.
And thank you for including the Jamie Oliver video. He does a great job explaining the process. It also reaffirms my decision to buy my husband a meat grinder for Christmas. 😉
Hi Katie,
Thanks so much! Wow, what a great idea to get your husband a meat grinder! You’d definitely know what went into your hamburger that way!
I’m not sure why Melanie wants to defend McDonald’s use of Pink Slime … it’s unclear to me whether she did it out of loyalty or it was part of her job description as a paid blog brand ambassador. I would hope that McDonald’s doesn’t pay bloggers to leave mean comments, but who knows? I’ve complained to one of their Board of Directors so I hope they revisit their social media brand strategy. I know that McDonalds numbers are down since they revealed they were removing the Pink Slime in 2012 and the numbers have not recovered so I imagine that they are doing everyting possible to make the Pink Slime media frenzy die. It truly is hurting their profits and they seem much more beholden to their shareholders than their customers.
We will never eat there again. My kids saw Jaime Oliver’s video and won’t eat there again. I think if kids realize where their food comes from, it’s a great lesson on nutrition and it also helps them to make healthy choices that will serve them well as they become adults.
Thanks again for your support Katie! It means a lot to me!
Hearing about stuff like this makes me feel defeated (why am I only hearing about this now) and social media insults are infuriating! Jamie Oliver is like a food saint!
Thanks Mia!!!
Hi Ann,
I had the same reaction actually to all three of your points. Why did I not hear about Pink Slime sooner? Love Jaimie Oliver and social media insults are truly infuriating!