What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef" • Hacker News Board

Re: What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef"

#141

Post by behringer » Sun, Feb 17, 2019, 5:03 AM UTC

jdietrich wrote: post #124

joe_the_user wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, the languaging in this re-linking sounds like so much like industry shilling. "That product is then sterilized with a strong puff of ammonia gas to kill pathogens, as beef trimmings are especially susceptible to contamination." With an elaborate explanation for each "terrible sounding" detail (what is this "puff" exactly, etc). ... except the sum total of the "terrible sounding" stuff is actually distinctl…

>Basically, pink slime is highly processed leavings of beef that cannot be used except by putting it through more or less a blender and a chemistry lab. After butchering a carcass, you're left with a lot of fatty trimmings with small amounts of meat attached that are uneconomical to recover by hand. If you gently heat the fat trimmings and spin them in a centrifuge, you cleanly separate the lean meat from the fat. Th…

So if I want to eat nice meat cuts ground up, without getting slime, what do I do?

Re: What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef"

#142

Post by artificialLimbs » Sun, Feb 17, 2019, 5:15 AM UTC

behringer wrote: post #141

jdietrich wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Basically, pink slime is highly processed leavings of beef that cannot be used except by putting it through more or less a blender and a chemistry lab. After butchering a carcass, you're left with a lot of fatty trimmings with small amounts of meat attached that are uneconomical to recover by hand. If you gently heat the fat trimmings and spin them in a centrifuge, you cleanly separate the lean meat from the fat. Th…

So if I want to eat nice meat cuts ground up, without getting slime, what do I do?

Know your farmer.

Re: What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef"

#143

Post by wutbrodo » Sun, Feb 17, 2019, 5:17 AM UTC

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #135

sjwright wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you let your steak dry before cooking, do you list the airborne dust and bacteria as ingredients?

The whole issue here isn’t the outside of the meat. The outside is supposed to have bacteria, and be cooked off. It’s that re-shaped meat is done with meat product that is made up of a lot of outside surface (the part that has all the bacteria) now being smashed to the inside of the product where it won’t get hot enough to kill. The inside of beef is quite clean, that’s why it’s safe to eat rare. The inside of reshap…

I'd be very surprised at someone knowing that beef doesn't need to be cooked internally to as high a temperature _without_ knowing that this isn't true of ground beef. I'm not much of a cook, and have even less exposure to Western cooking, and that's one of the basics you come across when you first started handling meat.

Re: What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef"

#144

Post by jannyfer » Sun, Feb 17, 2019, 5:23 AM UTC

behringer wrote: post #141

jdietrich wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Basically, pink slime is highly processed leavings of beef that cannot be used except by putting it through more or less a blender and a chemistry lab. After butchering a carcass, you're left with a lot of fatty trimmings with small amounts of meat attached that are uneconomical to recover by hand. If you gently heat the fat trimmings and spin them in a centrifuge, you cleanly separate the lean meat from the fat. Th…

So if I want to eat nice meat cuts ground up, without getting slime, what do I do?

In Canada, you can go to a local grocery store or meat shop and choose meat cuts and have them grind them for you on the spot.

Re: What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef"

#145

Post by sjwright » Sun, Feb 17, 2019, 5:31 AM UTC

ubercow13 wrote: post #122

sjwright wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Not a diet recommended for general use” can be legitimately said of many defined diets and can DEFINITELY be said of the actual eating habits of most western people. Keto (i.e. any diet that triggers ketones) is a compelling option for numerous reasons, not just epileptics. It’s definitely not a good default for the wider population. And it is of course environmentally and economically inefficient. But ketogenisis i…

'Protein is more filling' is also a part of our biochemistry but I'd still be ok with carnivore diet being called a fad diet

Keto isn’t a high protein diet.

Re: What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef"

#146

Post by kbutler » Sun, Feb 17, 2019, 5:33 AM UTC

doctorpangloss wrote: post #113

coldtea wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The "pink slime" story is mostly fake news. ABC News coined the term, and later paid $177 million to settle a lawsuit over it. It was the largest defamation settlement in the history of the United States. I'd say this "beef" is fake meat -- whether some court agrees or not (that depends on who has the best lawyers and deeper pockets, not on who has the best food). I'd be OK with companies being allowed to sell all…

People have had so much trouble getting over words we use to describe food. Clearly, when a normal person says "real" or "natural" or "doesn't have chemicals", they mean foods that are (1) made only with ingredients or processes endogenous to living organisms without human intervention or (2) when harvested industrially, the harvest is only mechanical. This seems reasonable to me! That's why it's okay to eat beef tha…

> (1) made only with ingredients or processes endogenous to living organisms without human intervention or (2) when harvested industrially, the harvest is only mechanical.

Well, there goes cooked food.

Re: What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef"

#147

Post by sjwright » Sun, Feb 17, 2019, 5:36 AM UTC

cageface wrote: post #126

sjwright wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Not a diet recommended for general use” can be legitimately said of many defined diets and can DEFINITELY be said of the actual eating habits of most western people. Keto (i.e. any diet that triggers ketones) is a compelling option for numerous reasons, not just epileptics. It’s definitely not a good default for the wider population. And it is of course environmentally and economically inefficient. But ketogenisis i…

Replace the word fad with popular if that works better for you. There has definitely been a lot of buzz around it lately.

I agree. It’s true of many (all?) diets that its proponents tend to overestimate the applicability of any one diet to all people.

Dietary science is at its infancy. Contrary to what most people would assume, we have mountains of anecdotes, mountains of opinions, and very few hard facts. Navigating diet from a fact-first, science-first perspective is deeply frustrating.

Re: What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef"

#148

Post by Dylan16807 » Sun, Feb 17, 2019, 5:39 AM UTC

brandonmenc wrote: post #47

Pretty sure I saw this quote here a while back: "When indigenous peoples work to make use of all of an animal we call it respect. Do it in a factory and all of the sudden it is gross."

The gross part isn't using all the animal. Go ahead and make sausage. The issue is pretending a low grade of meat is a higher grade.

Re: What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef"

#149

Post by newnewpdro » Sun, Feb 17, 2019, 5:41 AM UTC

pmarreck wrote: post #93

newnewpdro wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More heavily-processed industrial food products, yum!

FFS, this gives the people what they want without imprisoning and killing cows for food. Maybe have some evidence that it’s unhealthy before you bullshit a negativity next time

Green-washing the stuff doesn't make it any less of a processed food.

These are orthogonal issues.

Re: What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef"

#150

Post by Robotbeat » Sun, Feb 17, 2019, 5:43 AM UTC

jdietrich wrote: post #124

joe_the_user wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, the languaging in this re-linking sounds like so much like industry shilling. "That product is then sterilized with a strong puff of ammonia gas to kill pathogens, as beef trimmings are especially susceptible to contamination." With an elaborate explanation for each "terrible sounding" detail (what is this "puff" exactly, etc). ... except the sum total of the "terrible sounding" stuff is actually distinctl…

>Basically, pink slime is highly processed leavings of beef that cannot be used except by putting it through more or less a blender and a chemistry lab. After butchering a carcass, you're left with a lot of fatty trimmings with small amounts of meat attached that are uneconomical to recover by hand. If you gently heat the fat trimmings and spin them in a centrifuge, you cleanly separate the lean meat from the fat. Th…

The idiom "it's best not to watch the sausage being made" comes to mind, here.