Pink slime, a word fit for children’s clay or perhaps a fruity body wash, is the nickname that was given to a type of product that is used in the majority of ground beef products that are sold in the United States, including most school lunch programs.

McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell, after prodding by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, have taken the customer’s concerns into account and stopped using the product in their hamburgers. The product is a blended mixture of the meat that is left after all the choice cuts have been removed, called trim, which is treated with an ammonia gas to rid the meat of any food borne pathogens. The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved this process in 2007.

“It does not come as a shock to me at all,” said Melanie Phelan, junior in event management, of the latest fast food squabble. “Considering I’ve seen pictures of 10 year-old hamburgers that look exactly the same as they did the day they were made — talk about preservatives.”

Iowa State’s Connection

Beef Products Incorporated, a South Dakota meat processor with a strong presence in Iowa, invented the process of treating trim with ammonia over a decade ago. In 2007, when the USDA began to routinely test the meat that processors were selling as an ingredient in food for public consumption, Beef Products Incorporated was given an exemption from these tests. Michael Moss of the New York Times, said the company’s product became a “mainstay in America’s hamburgers,” with meat being sold to the major fast food chains, including McDonald’s, until recently, and grocery store chains to be used in ground beef.

“The investment that I saw at the [Beef Products Incorporated] plant was pretty impressive in comparison to any other food manufacturing facility that I had ever been in,” said Bill Marler, a food safety advocate and E. coli and food poisoning attorney. “I think what [the company] was trying to do was create a utilization of that product and use a chemical methodology to try to make that product safer.”

ISU professor of animal science and former scientist for the USDA Agricultural Research Service, James Dickson, did research that was partially funded by the state and partially by Beef Products Incorporated.

“Ammonium hydroxide treatment had already been approved by USDA,” Dickson said. “But our study helped to document the impact on food borne pathogens that could be present in beef.”

The exemption was later revoked after several temporary meat bans by the school lunch program challenged BPI and the USDA’s proclamation that the treatment was effective.

In 2009, a food safety law firm, Marler Clark, LLP, requested documents from Dickson’s research on ammoniated beef. After paying Iowa State for the documents, Beef Products Incorporated filed a suit against Iowa State to prevent the release of these papers claiming they contained trade secrets that would do irreparable damage to the company.

Much controversy has ensued about the USDA giving the South Dakota processor an exemption as a result of the funded research and also what Beef Products Incorporated is trying to protect by not allowing Dickson’s research documents to be disclosed.

“I don’t think so,” Marler said when asked if Beef Products Incorporated’s funding creates an inherent bias in Dickson’s research. “You know, I think there is always that argument and it’s a fair point to bring up. Conflicts of interest are just a part of the gig.”

Another dimension of this conflict is the question of motives. Are companies using this excess meat in an effort to try to use the entire cow instead of wasting parts or are they trying to clean an unsanitary product in an effort to make money?

Health and Safety

As Beef Products Incorporated’s own website explains, ammonia is one pH level away from soapy water. Ammonia is present in a lot of foods as well as the human body; the South Dakota company raises the ammonia level in the beef trim to kill food borne pathogens. This trim is oddly shaped chunks of meat that tend to be on the outside of the carcass where the contamination ends up. Ammoniated beef has been proclaimed safe for consumption and free of E. coli for the last five years and is seen by many as an extremely effective process.

“It is kind of unfortunate how quickly some of this misinformation can spread,” Dickson said in reference to the media reports of “pink slime.” “Because it is really not like that. They have tried to do the right thing and have been unfairly dinged. It’s a little frustrating.”

While the process might be safe, some may question if treating substandard meat, previously was used to make dog food, with a substance that is commonly found in household cleaners, is healthy.

“A consumer wouldn’t go into a store and buy trim,” Dickson said.

According to the New York Times article, there are two reasons that make trim something that people would not go pick out at the store yet something that they eat regularly.

The first reason is that Americans demand food at a very low cost, lower than any other country.

The second is that Americans are unaware they are eating this product. Both the Federal Drug Administration and the USDA classify ammonium hydroxide as a processing agent and not an additive, therefore no product containing ammoniated beef is required to list it as an ingredient.

The beef used by ISU Dining is hormone and antibiotic free, but it is required to go through a processor as a safety precaution.

Both Hickory Park and The Café in Ames grind a lot of their own fresh meat daily.