Pink Slime Controversy Recalls Long History of Mishandling Mad Cow Outbreaks

PINK SLIME
"FROM FABLE TO TABLE"

Monday, 16 April 2012 00:11 By Martha Rosenberg, Truthout | News Analysis 

There is an upside for the beef industry and industry-friendly federal food safety officials when people talk about pink slime. The burger extender, known as lean, finely textured beef and made from beef fat scraps treated with ammonia to kill germs, was recently found to be posing as "normal" ground beef in the National School Lunch Program, fast food outlets and grocery stores.

There's even an upside to the parade of medical journal articles linking red meat to coronary heart disease and cancer deaths. As long as people are taking about beef's ick factor and link to progressive diseases, they're not talking about the "third rail" of meat safety - mad cow disease.

It's has been almost ten years since the US's first mad cow was discovered. Ninety-eight percent of US beef exports evaporated within 24 hours when Mexico, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea and 90 other countries banned US beef. The only reason the European Union didn't ban US beef was because it had already banned it for excessive use of growth hormones!   READ MORE