Jamie Oliver's short American television series "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" continues to have wide-ranging effects for the better on the American food supply. Although McDonald's denies that Oliver's show had any influence on their decision, they have recently decided to stop using ground beef treated with ammonium hydroxide - what Oliver aptly named "pink slime" on his show.

 

Oliver has also referred to this ammonia/beef concoction as "dog food." Virtually all of the ammonia-treated beef comes from a single massive source: Beef Products, Inc, which happens to be McDonalds' largest supplier. Beef Products, Inc claims that ammonium hydroxide is a naturally-occurring antibacterial chemical which is found normally in meat. They simply, you know… amp it up a little.

Ammonium hydroxide is used to turn what would otherwise be waste meat into something judged suitable for a McDonald's cheeseburger. Without the ammonium hydroxide treatment, these "trimmings" would be used in dog food and other low-grade meat sources.

 

America has one of the worst food safety records in the developed world. Although the media and corporations like to put the burden on the consumer (thus blaming the victim), practices like taking otherwise unsuitable meat and washing it with ammonium hydroxide to make it (theoretically) "human safe" are a large part of the problem. Who is ultimately to blame: the company that contaminated the meat, or the person who failed to cook it within an inch of its life?

 

One wonders, if a vat of meat is so dicey that it has to be washed with ammonia before being fed to people, whether it should be served at all. This was Jamie Oliver's contention, along with the belief that although Americans know that their diet is poor, they don't really realize HOW poor. Everyone knows they shouldn't eat at McDonald's, but how many people know that the meat in the burgers has had to be disinfected with ammonia first?

 

(Incidentally, although people love to draw a connection between obesity, poverty, and eating at McDonald's, a recent study shows that it is the time-strapped but relatively cash-rich middle class who are most likely to imbibe of the Golden Arches.)

 

The ammonia-washed meat supplied by Beef Products, Inc can be found everywhere, as you might expect from such a colossal corporation. If you want to ensure that your ground beef is just ground beef and nothing else (like "trimmings" or ammonium hydroxide), buy a cut of meat at your store's butcher counter and ask them to grind it up for you. Most stores will be happy to do this for you at no extra charge.