Notes On A Meal

This arrived in my inbox today.  Its a great info video about the changing landscape of the Canadian food economy. It does a great job of pointing out that while Canada has some of the best available land for agriculture in the world, we choose to import cheaper and often less nutritious  items in favor of  the perception  of better prices at the check out. I will point out that the video is part of a new marketing initiative by Hellmans to encourage people to eat local and thus position itself as a local producer of local food.  A quick search on Google brings up the slogan “Helmans, includes 3 Simple Ingredients:100% Canadian Eggs+Vinegar+Canola Oil.”  While at first glance this seems perfectly reasonable, Hellmans is owned by Unilever which is a European Multinational that got its start by importing Sunlight soap to Canada.  None the less, the message here is clear and if nothing else, a bit of an eye opener.

 
 

Here is a collection of new school bakeries from around the world. They emphasize not only baking but also stunning modern design.  Thanks to The Cool Hunter for these great images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be sure to check out the original article posted here, courtesy of The Cool Hunter.

There has been a running story for the past couple of weeks about a product called finely textured beef a.k.a pink slime. In essence, pink slime is a filler product made from small bits of meat created during the butchery and processing of beef. It is collected from abattoirs, soaked in ammonia to kill any E.coli (and just about anything else) mashed together into a paste and mixed into ground beef and ground beef products. In other words, meat, that is unfit for use in any other application and is so toxic that it has to be throughly soaked in ammonia, is collected, pacakged and slipped into a wide array of consumer products as a means to bulk up ground beef offerings.

 

This is by no means new. The world has been aware of finely textured beef products for years. In fact, companies like AFA Foods and Beef Products Inc. (BPI) have several plants across the US and do over $500 million in sales a year hawking pink slime.  As they put it on their website:

BPI lean beef is a key ingredient in more than 20 billion meals served every year and is found in hundreds of consumer and food industry products, including:

• Fresh retail ground beef
• Fresh and frozen hamburger patties
• Low-fat hot dogs
• Taco meats
• Lunch meats
• Chili
• Beef sticks/snacks
• Sausages, pepperoni, and other encased meats
• Retail frozen entrees
• Meat balls
• Roast beef
• Canned foods

 

(From BPI website)

By most accounts, pink slime is in about 70% of all ground beef sold a supermarktets, in hotdogs, deli meats, frozen entres and canned foods. It is a main stay of fast food chains and bulk retailers that sell prepared foods to institutions such as hospitals, cafeterias and most notably, schools.

While the use of hard chemicals to process food may seem harsh, it is pretty standard. In fact, the USDA has a whole list of chemicals that can be used without downline reporting (other wise known as product labeling).

Pink slime has come under media scrutiny lately. Since the story broke in 2009, pink slime has been gaining notoriety. However, it has only been in the last few weeks as the story made the rounds online that it has really gained momentum. As a result, the FDA has removed its once glowing endorsement for pink slime use in school lunch meals.  In another major reversal, the USDA who have a contract with  BPI to provide over 7 million pounds of pink slime to be used in school lunch programs have allowed schools to opt out if they wish. Further, several large fast food chains including McDonalds, Burger King and Taco Bell have laid out plans to eliminate pink slime from their menu. The increased coverage has closed several of BPIs plants around the US and laid off several thousand workers.

More Great coverage of this story can be found here:
‘Pink slime’ is also used in cheese, reveals meat industry under fire for using caustic cleaning chemical
Also there is a great video of a the govenor of Nebraska defending pink slime.

The BPI website.

Pink Slime company seeks bankruptcy protection.

Whistle Blower Kit Foshee: Video clip starting at 35:50 confronts BPI legal team and highlights issues with BPIs use of amonia in food sanitation.

Lean Beef or Pink Slime: US Today coverage.

Revenge of the Pink Slime: coverage from Salon Magazine

Endland. Home of the Royal Family, the Union Jack and the iconic phrase ‘keep calm and carry on.’ Now, it is also home to the hot dog stuffed pizza crust.

Yes, pizza hut is offering a truly unique way to eat even more processed meat, by stuffing a hot dog into the crust of your pizza. Order any pizza you wish and step up to the luxury, the pedigree and the gastronomical acme of a hot dog stuffed pizza. Why settle for only a regular, boring crust when yours could be filled with mechanically separated, emulsified, preservative rich and pink slime enhanced hotdog. Nothing speaks to me of quality then jamming one kind of mass produced fast food inside another. Kudos to Pizza Hut for raising the bar yet again. Also, as an additional bonus, all hotdog crust pizzas come with a free ‘mustard drizzle.’ Win.

Thanks to The Grist and of course Pizza Hut Uk for this one.

The head of the USDA food safety is Elizabeth Hagen. She has gone on record as saying: Continue reading “Chemical Accountability In Meat Processing.”