Thought your school lunch was borderline yucky before? Just
wait until pink slime hits the line.
Even though both McDonald’s and Taco Bell have banned it
from their franchises (and the U.K. has outlawed it all together), the USDA has
decided to serve 7 million pounds of so-called “pink slime”—ground connective
tissue and meat scraps that have been treated by ammonium hydroxide—to school
kids across the U.S.
Yeah, not so yummy.
These “lean beef trimmings” have been labeled high-risk, Yahoo.com reports. Aside from safety concerns, Gerald
Zirnstein, a microbiologist and former member of the USDA Food Safety
Inspective Service, says, “It was not nutritionally equivalent [to ground
beef]. My main object was that it was not meat.”
Um. Ew.
Ready to hop on the brown-bag train?
CLICK HERE for some fresh ideas.
Update - 3/22/2012
Good news, girlies! Pink slime is on its way out. Several school districts (including NYC and Miami-Dade County in FL) will be phasing it out. Supermarket chains (including Safeway, Acme, Kroger, Shop 'n' Save, Genuardi's and Food Lion) will be selling through their current stock and then eliminating it from their stores. While many schools are reporting that they're having difficulty finding pink slime-free ground beef through their suppliers, things are definitely looking up! Get more updates at
cbsnews.com.
BY BRITTANY TAYLOR ON 3/8/2012 4:32:00 PM
POSTED IN healthy eating 101, lunch, nutrition, In the News