The Slimy Truth - Part 2

I just wanted to clear up a few misconceptions that people have when it comes to boneless lean meat trimmings; otherwise known as 'pink slime'.  It is not a filler.  It does not contain anything other than meat.  There is no sinew, cartilage, or fat in it.

This is basically how BPI's process to make boneless lean meat trimmings works.

1. They get meat from IBP (a nearby beef slaughter plant) or other close by slaughter plants.  This meat is basically the fat trimmings that the slaughter plants would otherwise throw away because it is mostly fat and they don't have the technology to be able to process it for sale.  (Think about trimming a grilled steak.  There is always a little meat attached to the fat that you cut off and leave on the side of your plate.)
2. BPI then takes those trimmings and puts them into a big machine.  This machine is basically a centrifuge with layers of screens with different sized holes.  The machine then lightly heats the trimmings so that the fat separates into the different layers, leaving the tiny snippets of meat behind.   This leaves no meat to waste.
3. They then use a puff of ammonia hydroxide (an element essential to life, not a chemical) to raise the already present level of ammonia hydroxide in the meat slightly to kill off bacteria, like E. Coli.
4. This extremely lean, no fat left, meat is then incorporated into ground meats.  Because the particles of meat are so tiny, it is perfect to help make fatty ground beef more lean and healthy.

The machines are amazing to see.  They are huge!  If you are tech savvy like I am, you'd love to see the casters that they use to turn the machines.  The technology is really interesting.

I hope that this helps you all to understand what the process really is.  There are no chemicals involved.  There is no filler or otherwise inedible things ground into it.   It really is just meat.  They leave nothing to waste.  Please take your time to look through all of the links that I put in "The Slimy Truth" Part 1.  There is great information on all of those sites.

Thank you!

The Slimy Truth

This is what their meat really looks like,
not the horrible pictures that you see on TV.

I'm sure that most of you have heard the words 'Pink Slime' in the last few weeks.  This story really hits home to me.  I grew up just 15 miles from BPI's headquarters.  BPI stands for Beef Products Incorporated.  It is a company that has developed the processes for creating meat products.  Everything from meat used in Spam to the "Pepperoni" you find on your frozen pizza.  We have a lot of close friends that work in that company.  They range anywhere from the processors on the main floor to the engineers responsible for creating the processes and machines used to more efficiently create meat products.  One of their goals is to extract and use every piece of meat that they can; therefore leaving none to waste.