We were having a discussion during class the other night about fast food and a customer commented that she was never eating a fast food hamburger again after hearing about what is in them. I knew they didn’t use high-quality beef but was not aware of how bad it really is. Here is what was revealed recently in the New York Times:
> Extra cow parts and trimmings (traditionally sold for use in pet
food)are being used to make hamburger patties in fast food chains
(McDonalds is the main one and they also named Burger King) and federal
school lunch programs.
> The processed beef is injected with ammonia to make it “safe” enough
to eat.
> Both e. coli and salmonella have been found contaminating the products
sold by Beef Products, Inc., who make this processed beef, a mashlike
substance frozen into blocks or chips and used in a majority of
hamburger sold nationwide.
> The ammonia doesn’t always kill the pathogens, which came as a shock to
the USDA, which had exempted the company from pathogen testing and
product recalls. It seems that the USDA agreed to Beef Products, Inc.’s
request that the ammonia be classified as a “processing agent” and not
an ingredient that would be listed on labels.
So apparently this process of using beef trimmings injected with ammonia in fast food beef has been a well-kept secret for years. No wonder fast food is so cheap! And what else is in processed foods that we don’t know about and our government is not protecting us from?
The next time I am tempted to grab a quick burger, I will think about opening a can of dog food, spraying it with Windex and eating it on a bun, which is essentially what we are getting with a fast food burger!
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