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guy
01-06-2010, 05:39 PM
If you're in the beef business, what do you do with all the extra cow parts and trimmings that have traditionally been sold off for use in pet food? You scrape them together into a pink mass, inject them with a chemical to kill the e.coli, and sell them to fast food restaurants to make into hamburgers.

That's what's been happening all across the USA with beef sold to McDonald's, Burger King, school lunches and other fast food restaurants, according to a New York Times article. The beef (http://www.naturalnews.com/beef.html) is injected with ammonia, a chemical commonly used in glass cleaning and window cleaning products (http://www.naturalnews.com/cleaning_products.html).

This is all fine with the USDA (http://www.naturalnews.com/the_USDA.html), which endorses the procedure as a way to make the hamburger beef "safe" enough to eat. Ammonia kills e.coli, you see, and the USDA (http://www.naturalnews.com/USDA.html) doesn't seem to be concerned with the fact that people are eating ammonia in their hamburgers.

This ammonia-injected beef comes from a company called Beef Products, Inc. As NYT reports, the federal school lunch (http://www.naturalnews.com/school_lunch.html) program used a whopping 5.5 million pounds of ammonia-injected beef trimmings from this company in 2008. This company reportedly developed the idea of using ammonia to sterilize beef before selling it for human consumption.

Aside from the fact that there's ammonia in the hamburger meat (http://www.naturalnews.com/meat.html), there's another problem with this company's products: The ammonia doesn't always kill the pathogens. Both e.coli and salmonella have been found contaminating the cow-derived products sold by this company.

This came as a shock to the USDA, which had actually exempted the company's products from pathogen testing and product recalls. Why was it exempted? Because the ammonia injection process was deemed so effective that the meat products were thought to be safe beyond any question.

What else is in there?

As the NYT reports, "The company says its processed beef, a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips, is used in a majority of the hamburger sold nationwide. But it has remained little known outside industry and government circles. Federal officials agreed to the company's request that the ammonia be classified as a 'processing agent' and not an ingredient that would be listed on labels."

Fascinating. So you can inject a beef product with a chemical found in glass cleaning products and simply call it a "processing agent" -- with the full permission and approval of the USDA, no less! Does anyone doubt any longer how deeply embedded the USDA is with the beef industry?

Apparently, this practice of injecting fast food (http://www.naturalnews.com/fast_food.html) beef with ammonia has been a well-kept secret for years. I never knew this was going on, and this news appears to be new information to virtually everyone. The real shocker is that "a majority" of fast food restaurants (http://www.naturalnews.com/fast_food_restaurants.html) use this ammonia-injected cow-derived product in their hamburger meat. It sort of makes you wonder: What else is in there that we don't know about?

"School lunch officials and other customers complained about the taste and smell of the beef," says the NYT. No wonder. It's been pumped full of chemicals.

There are already a thousand reasons not to eat fast food (http://www.naturalnews.com/food.html). Make this reason number 1,001. Ammonia. It's not supposed to be there.

You can get the same effect by opening a can of dog food made with beef byproducts, spraying it with ammonia, and swallowing it. That is essentially what you're eating when you order a fast food burger.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027872_ammonia_beef_products.html

yum

Hazelnut
01-06-2010, 05:52 PM
Speechless.


This came as a shock to the USDA, which had actually exempted the company's products from pathogen testing and product recalls. Why was it exempted? Because the ammonia injection process was deemed so effective that the meat products were thought to be safe beyond any question.

captainkiwi
01-06-2010, 06:02 PM
reminds me why i never eat McD's or burger king in fact any fast food it all makes me want to puke

Infinite`Eternal`Forever
01-06-2010, 06:04 PM
Does this apply to chicken sandwiches as well?

Hazelnut
01-06-2010, 06:10 PM
Its sickening. Soylent Green isn't far from becoming reality. Gag.

captainkiwi
01-06-2010, 06:14 PM
processed meat is killing us all I never eat it I guess we are lucky down here in little old NZ we can still go the the local butcher and buy fresh cuts cut before your very eyes by the butcher simple pleasures

lala
01-06-2010, 07:36 PM
Does this apply to chicken sandwiches as well?


I don't do chicken they full it with steriods . . . no farm fresh chicken meat at takeaways . . . . eeewww
We had a post somewhere about how crappy takeaways are for you, and how a mac donalds burger lasted over 8yrs in a cupboard with out getting mould on it, not even the bun . . . eeewww how that!!!:D

RubyRocket
01-06-2010, 07:37 PM
and of course..I made burgers for dinner...

lala
01-06-2010, 07:56 PM
and of course..I made burgers for dinner...


Homemade is good or do you buy the patties . . . some are good some are crap, read the box . . .or making them yourself it is easy and cheaper, can freeze the extra's for next time :D

RubyRocket
01-06-2010, 08:25 PM
*sigh..it was patties...
I'm lazy.
Of course, even "FRESH" beef..(loose term), has it's poisons...
6 of one, half dozen of the other.

lala
01-06-2010, 09:06 PM
I'm from NZ to, we are lucky here we still have friends that murder there animals and make there own meat products . . . which we traded for jobs, so come's in handy . . . we also have different grades of mince . . . if it grayish run . . lol:D

Cogburn
01-06-2010, 09:56 PM
Chemistry time!

What is the quantity and solution of the ammonia used?
What is the exact manner in which it is utilized?
What is the manner in which it is removed from the meat?

Notice how the article indicated that e. coli is sometimes still present, however completely fails to mention a single incident in which ammonia was ingested by a consumer.

Some people never should have graduated high school with the education they seem to possess.

guy
01-06-2010, 09:58 PM
Chemistry time!

What is the quantity and solution of the ammonia used?
What is the exact manner in which it is utilized?
What is the manner in which it is removed from the meat?

Notice how the article indicated that e. coli is sometimes still present, however completely fails to mention a single incident in which ammonia was ingested by a consumer.

Some people never should have graduated high school with the education they seem to possess.

so enlighten us as to how long ammonia remains in dead meat.

pack3tg0st
01-06-2010, 10:02 PM
jesus... there is so much spin in the article its astounding....

I went to the site... NaturalNews... probably some bias if its on a natural food website to begin with...

then I read the article...

and they don't even link to the NY Times article they're speaking of...

So... I'm off to track down that NY times article... and I'll report back :)

pack3tg0st
01-06-2010, 10:06 PM
The original article just mentions the ammonia beef...

The New York Times was questioning the efficiency of the methods used to treat it... not the health risks of the ammonia....

And even then... it focuses on ONE company...

Here's the original article...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html

pack3tg0st
01-06-2010, 10:10 PM
Should also be noted that ammonia is normally a gas... and therefore, should dissapate rapidly under the heat of cooking (if there is even any in it still)

guy
01-06-2010, 10:20 PM
As suppliers of national restaurant chains and government-financed programs were buying Beef Product meat to use in ground beef, complaints about its pungent odor began to emerge.
In early 2003, officials in Georgia returned nearly 7,000 pounds to Beef Products after cooks who were making meatloaf (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/m/meatloaf/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) 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.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1
At least some of the beef they sold had remnants of ammonia in it.

And pack stated it was just one company, but that company-Beef products, appears to be owned by Cargil..

Another snapshot of processed beef’s performance emerges from confidential records of tests in 2007 by the food giant Cargill. In the preceding year and a half, Cargill, which used more than 50 vendors, suspended three facilities for excessive salmonella; two were Beef Products plants, records show.

they are a pretty big company.

pack3tg0st
01-06-2010, 10:23 PM
they are a pretty big company.

Yah... its a big company lol

with a lame ass name

"Beef Products"

I was just pointing out how the article in the OP was misleading vs the article in the NYtimes...

I have no stake in this fight... I already despise fast food... and don't buy any meat that isn't from with 100 miles of my house.

MissSilver
01-06-2010, 10:38 PM
if it grayish run . . lol:D



If you knew how beef is treated lala... you and I see it red, it is because it is injected with color additives to make it look attractive. Got some real beef at my old corner store butcher, a very small family business and the meat was not as bright red at it usually is in the supermarkets. Still on the reddish side but most definitely some grayish color in it.

He would also ground some fresh ground beef on demand and boy did it smell so good as it cooked!

And, OMG, those 4 to 5 pounders fresh free range chicken for 12$! The only think that ran out of those chicken while roasting in the oven was their own natural fat, no water not injected solution.

I would brine them chickens once in a while and the result was fall of the bone roasted chicken!

Ever since I moved to the states, I have yet to see such high quality chicken. Next time we swing around whole food market, might just give their chicken a try.


As for fast food and processed food in general, they mostly are poison. We are what we eat, no wonder so many people have health issues here in the states.

Canada decided to ban Trans Fats in every processed food sold, a right step that the US should follow.

Cogburn
01-07-2010, 01:54 AM
so enlighten us as to how long ammonia remains in dead meat.

That's not the question. The question is if the means by which the ammonia is removed is insufficient to remove it all.

That would be the implication of the article, however no proof is ever provided that such is the case.

No proof? Fuck that. That's called a "lie."

http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/07/whereb.jpg