"pink slime"

[MO_cows]

I am totally against the exageration and mis-information that has been put out about this product with the intent of "smearing" beef to the public. The product is as safe as anything else the public consumes that is mass produced.

However, I think the way this product was simply added into the food chain without any labeling, announcement or promotion or anything was a big mistake. If the industry had done it's job with PR and sold this product to the public on the good points it does have, none of this media frenzy could have happened.

I also believe it does change the taste and texture when added to fresh ground beef, and not for the better! There are plenty of processed products where the LFTB could be utilized without lowering the quality of the eating experience. Don't make "fresh" ground beef mealy textured and flat tasting with this product. Don't give people another excuse to buy a turkey burger or tofu burger, ya know??

 

[mrj]

I haven't eaten this product recently, that I know of, and others who DID eat it at Sioux City when the governors and others were there, said it WAS a tasty, good burger;

I know that 'hamburger' extended with and even claimed to be made "more healthful by, addition of soy products can have an off taste....and some 'burger' is made with a combination of ground poultry, also with the claim of making it "more healthful" and it CAN taste 'diferent' at best, than all-beef hamburger, it makes me wonder what some claiming these extra lean burgers made with LFTB are REALLY eating.

Some people don't like the flavor of extra lean beef. Most we get in supermarkets has, until very recently, been at least 85% fat and some people think even that tastes 'off' somehow. Some of the burger with LFTB is from 93 to 98% lean.

I would like to participate in a 'tasting' of various hamburger meat blends, but wouldn't want to waste my time on the ones adulterated with soy or poultry, not that I don't enjoy poultry on occasion, just don't want it in a 'hamburger'!

I agree that a promo for the 'new' leaner hamburger would have helped. Hindsight is pretty near 100%, after all.

I'd just about bet the people making it never gave a thought to the idea they were making a 'new' product, since it was and is simply a different blend or mixture or ratio of lean to fat, BECAUSE it is ALL beef muscle salvaged from the fat trim from the major muscle cuts which become steaks, roasts, and possibly some rib cuts.

The ONLY difference in LFTB and the 'other' burger in the mixtures is the fact that the LFTB is better protected from bacteria by that very brief 'puff' of ammonium hydroxide GAS! As are many other components of the burger (the bun, cheese, catsup, other veggies on the sandwich) and as are some salad greens, chocolate, and other foods. The GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) food treatments such as ammonium hydroxide are not required to be listed on the label, I belive, and will stand correction from credible sources if that is incorrect.

The part that irritates me, aside from the crippling costs to so many in the entire cattle/beef/food industry over this is the agenda driven prople who have actually lied to gain the media attention.

mrj

 

[mrj]

The Tri State Neighbor carried an interesting column by Jim Wooster telling about the BPI plant and owner Eldon Roth. Check it out at

www.tristateneighbor.com. Click on the headings to find 'Jim Wooster', and the title is "Standing Firmly Behind.....".

I haven't seen much about the plant and the owner in all this fuss, much less anything positive!

mrj

 

[VB RANCH]

A rally in boxed beef prices of nearly $7 per hundredweight early this week lends support to the idea the media-led controversy over pink slime is subsiding. Choice boxed beef prices were quoted at $185.38 on Wednesday, $6.87 higher than Friday's price. The Select cutout was quoted at $183.50, an increase of $6.17 over Friday's price.

Early-week feeder cattle auctions are called steady to $4 per hundredweight higher. The grass-buying run is mostly over for the season, but tightening numbers of feeder cattle are providing ample support to the market.

Tthe fed cattle trade offered little in terms of a market gauge, but ideas are that prices may find a late-week rally. Through Wednesday the trade was light to moderate, with top prices in the $122 to $123.50 per hundredweight range. Analysts say feedyards are asking $125 per hundredweight. Packers are thought to need cattle as retail inventories are low. Last week saw one of the smallest non-holiday slaughter numbers over the past year.

Leading into the peak grilling season, beef demand has been soft, fueled in part by the media firestorm over lean fine-textured beef, often referred to as pink slime by the national media. Ground beef sales, including trimmings, fell 11 percent to 37.7 million pounds during March. That's the smallest amount of ground beef sold during March for 10 years. USDA data shows that wholesale Choice beef dropped 7.8 percent last month, the most since October 2008.

The Sterling Beef Profit Tracker shows packers have lost money on every animal processed since September of last year. This week's calculations by John Nalivka, Sterling Marketing president, show packers with an average per head loss of $106.57.

Glynn Tonsor, assistant professor in agricultural economics at Kansas State University, told Bloomberg News this week that beef packer margins are likely to stay negative at least through September because the industry's problems have been "magnified" by the decline in the use of lean fine-textured beef. Lower LFTB use will increase costs as processors switch to more expensive cuts for ground beef, he said.