A happy fastfood menu

I guess we all owe Jamie Oliver a big juicy ‘thank’, for being the only one in the world able to persuade McDonald’s to change their burger recipe.

McDonald’s said this week that it was no longer using the controversial ground beef additive known as “pink slime” in its hamburger recipe. Taco Bell and Burger King have also reportedly repudiated the “slime,” which consists of spare beef trimmings that have been treated with ammonium hydroxide to make them safe and at least semi-palatable.Its not for the first time we covered fastfoods quality on Juiced by example here:  //juicedmuscle.com/jmblog/taxonomy/term/47/all

The food activist was shocked when he learned that ammonium hydroxide was being used by McDonald’s to convert fatty beef off cuts into a beef filler for its burgers in the USA.

The filler product made headlines after he denounced it on his show, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.
“Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold at the cheapest form for dogs and after this process we can give it to humans” said the TV chef.

Even if Oliver was the most prominent critic of “pink slime,” though, he wasn’t alone. The New York Times raised serious doubts about “pink slime” in a 2009 investigation of the product. It was also criticized in the 2010 documentary “Food Inc.”

Part of the criticism stems from a general sense of disgust. People don’t like hearing that they’re eating spare trimmings of beef from strange parts of a cow. Nor, for that matter, do people like to hear that they’re eating ammonia.

The USDA, for its part, approved of the ammoniated beef trimmings. In 2007, when it mandated increased testing for most ground beef, it specifically exempted “pink slime,” even though the ammoniated beef comes from the parts of the cow most likely to harbor pathogens. The USDA argued that the beef’s ammonia treatment would kill any bacteria lingering in the beef.

Is anyone really surprised about this news? Do you think any fast food chain can offer a “dollar menu” and actually pay for top quality ingredien’s? Please.

Actually, I wouldn’t mind a quarter pounder with imitation cheese right about now.