If you saw or read the recent gross-meat news story that ABC broke on Wednesday, we’re here to tell you that not all hamburger meat has the “pink slime.”
Gerald Zirnstein, former United States Department of Agriculture scientist, told ABC that “70 percent of the ground beef we buy at the supermarket contains something he calls ‘pink slime.’” The referenced slime is cheap filler made from salvaged product that is then treated with ammonia to render it “safe” for consumption.
Not the case at at least one area grocer—Newport Market.
“If anything like that is being done, it’s being done at a large central processing plant. I have no idea what they’re talking about (those in the ABC story). We’ve never added anything or done anything like that,” said Randy Hall, Newport’s meat department manager.
Newport Market uses Country Natural Beef, a cooperative consisting of 120 family ranches across the west, and the local grocer grinds all of its hamburger meat in house.
“Any of the beef you get for me is ranch to plate, meaning it goes from the field to the dinner plate. It’s minimally processed and over seen by the ranchers, me and the consumer,” Hall said.
Hall went on to say that this cheap additive is likely being added by enormous processing plants like Carghill Meat (just check out their website—it screams “factory farm”).
So yeah, there’s gross meat out there. But we have access to the good stuff. Shop with a discerning eye, y’all.
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2012.
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