Bad Food Additives

Ammonia deliberately added to hamburger meat

Thursday, 21 January 2010 14:27

According to a recent article by the New York Times, hamburger meat is deliberately treated with Ammonia, more commonly used in window cleaner, as a processing agent to kill Salmonella and E.Coli. The process apparently makes the hamburger meat "safe". It seems there is no need to worry about the fact that people are eating window cleaner in their burgers.

Eight years ago a US beef company trying to expand into the hamburger industry came up with a product made from fatty trimmings normally discarded into slaughterhouse bins. These trimmings are highly susceptible to contamination but when treated with Ammonia the E.Coli is reduced to "an undetectable level".

Before this ammonia treatment was introduced, the only use for these fatty trimmings was in pet food. Now they are a billion dollar industry.

Based on the company's own studies the United States Department of Agriculture approved the use of Ammonia to treat the beef in 2007 and it has been used in burgers produced by MacDonald's, Burger King (Hungry Jacks) and other fast food chains ever since.

The move has caused friction internally among Government officials. In an email message, one official called the processed beef "pink slime" and  that he did not consider it to be ground beef.

What's more, the USDA agreed to classify the ammonia as a "processing agent" so as not to be an ingredient listed on product labels.

Ammonia, is caustic and hazardous to humans. The fact the USDA has taken steps to ensure that ammonia is not listed as an ingredient, is an acknowledgment they know it is unsafe or at least that it's not what the public is willing to consume.

Is it right that our government should endorse the use of harsh chemicals like Ammonia so greedy companies can turn rubbish into food? Not only do they endorse it, they deliberately cover it up. No mother would knowingly feed window cleaner to her children. Yet governments of the world will allow it and conspire to hide it from us.

Read the full article here.