I’ve got slime on the mind. Not that old Nickelodeon show slime or the green ectoplasm stuff from Ghostbusters, but pink slime.
The meat industry, in their zeal to be as efficient as possible, are now selling Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings, or BLBT, in supermarkets as ground beef. Apparently, this Play-Doh-like substance is in 70% of conventional ground beef.
However, the substance, critics said, is more like gelatin than meat, and before Beef Products Inc. found a way to use it by disinfecting the trimmings with ammonia it was sold only to dog food or cooking oil suppliers.
Now, I’m all for finding uses for everything. But, as my new pal Will Harris of White Oak Pastures told me, feeding this byproduct to people may be too high a use for it. Perhaps only dog food should be “slimed.” At the very least, I’d say labeling is a solid idea.
It certainly doesn’t put me in the mood to make burgers. And, it also gives new meaning to that old question: Where’s the beef?
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Congrats to last week’s book giveaway winner, Megan!
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