ImaginativeButterfly29: Current events; Pink slime-- 3/29/12

Finely textured beef... "Pink slime"

My current events article was about "lean finely textured beef," more efficiently known as "pink slime." Researchers are realizing that 70% of ground beef products in grocery stored contain pink slime. Former USDA scientist, Gerald Zimstein bought the subject to the public's attention. Before we get into what happened with the pink slime, and how people are discussing the topic, what is pink slime anyway? Pink slime/finely textured beef is a clever use of left-over scraps of fat and meat which are removed from standard meat cuts. They're spun through a machine with a rapidly rotating container, known as a centrifuge. They're spun like this to separate the beef bits from the fat. Next, the liquid mixture is squeezed through a thin tube and then exposed to a bit of ammonia gas which reacts with water if the meat. The mixture kills any bacteria in the beef. This became an interesting news story because the beef has an addictive substance to it which attracts the human brain to get more. McDonalds, and Burger King are banishing the beef slime from their hamburgers, and school all over are banishing them from their menus during lunchtime. In addition, This meeting happened at March 23rd at the USDA association. The pink slime meeting happened because many USDA members are noticing the pink slime in beef lately and wanted to research it more.

You always need to know what you're eating in order to
maintain a healthy lifestyle.

I think that this article was very self-explanatory and informative. It's really great to be informed with this kind of information because you need to know what you're eating and digesting. Also, you need to know whether it's good for you or if it's bad enough to damage you permanently. I think it's really good to know that people are researching their doubts when it comes to food. You'll be safe and you'll know what you're eating and it it's really healthy. This article also shows me that it doesn't matter if what you're eating tastes amazingly delicious, but you need to keep in mind whether it's good for you're health and body. Many delicious foods have addicting substances that make you want more of it. For example: These hamburgers were really delicious, but did the people eating it know that they were really eating pink slime? Doesn't that change the whole perspective of the food they're addicting too? This article really proved that everything has some kind of bad side to it, and you need to know what it is. I thought it was really amazing how they described the food.