Too Much Ammonia In Your Beef? Or Not Enough?

Hey! You! Yeah, you, the fatty eating that Big Mac!
You know it probably has Ammonia in it, don’t you???

Here’s an eye-opener from the New York Times, concerning Beef Products, Inc., and their novel idea on how to kill E coli and salmonella in your beef… do it with the great taste of ammonia!

A little PR/marketing and problem solved!

Here’s the article breakdown:

• Beef Products Inc., had been looking to expand into the hamburger business with a product made from beef that included fatty trimmings the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. The trimmings were particularly susceptible to contamination, but a study commissioned by the company showed that the ammonia process would kill E. coli as well as salmonella.
• Fat trimmings are liquefied and their protein is extracted. Yum.
• Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture endorsed the company’s ammonia treatment. They decided it was so effective that, a few years ago, when the department began routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public, they exempted Beef Products.
• The beef is used in fast food burgers like McDonald’s and Burger King. Also grocery chains and the federal school lunch program
• Records obtained by the NYT 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 agriculture department said it was revoking Beef Products’ exemption from routine testing and conducting a review of the company’s operations and research. Since it was seen as pathogen-free, the processed beef was excluded from recalls, even when it was an ingredient in hamburgers found to be contaminated.

So, in other words, what we have here is a company (Beef Products Inc.) which uses ammonia in their beef, which doesn’t even work all the time. And even though the Department of Agriculture does routing testing of meat sold to the public, Beef Products Inc. meat is exempt! (And it’s excluded from recalls). (And it’s not even really what we would consider beef – maybe our pets would like it.)

Pathogens died when enough ammonia was used to raise the alkalinity of the beef to a high level, company research found. But early on, school lunch officials and other customers complained about the taste and smell of the beef. Samples of the processed beef obtained by The Times revealed lower levels of alkalinity, suggesting less ammonia was used.

No Labeling

In early 2003, officials in Georgia returned nearly 7,000 pounds to Beef Products after cooks who were making meatloaf for state prisoners detected a “very strong odor of ammonia” in 60-pound blocks of the trimmings, state records show. “It was frozen, but you could still smell ammonia,” said Dr. Charles Tant, a Georgia agriculture department official. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Unaware that the meat was treated with ammonia — since it was not on the label — Georgia officials assumed it was accidentally contaminated and alerted the agriculture department. In their complaint, the officials noted that the level of ammonia in the beef was similar to levels found in contamination incidents involving chicken and milk that had sickened schoolchildren.

Naturally, the company says (on their website) that a little ammonia is good for you. Hmmm. We don’t know. The odor of ammonia doesn’t really fit well with our Whopper, you know?

By the way, the reason E. coli gets into your meat is because there is feces in it.

Now, how about some vegetarian cooking tonight?