ground beef news stories on Newser

Grocery Chain: Our Shoppers Want Pink Slime

Matt Cantor — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 08:01:00 CDT

Apparently everyone isn't grossed out by the much-discussed pink slime: Indeed, some customers are demanding it. Thus the 235-store Hy-Vee grocery chain has decided to sell ground beef with and without the product, also called lean, finely textured beef, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reports. Residents of cities that produce pink...

Governors Defend Pink Slime by Eating It

Rob Quinn — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:29:26 CDT

Pink slime is perfectly safe to eat, but it has a bit of a PR problem, according to federal authorities and a coalition of at least four governors. Department of Agriculture officials say the "slime"—leftover beef trimmings sometimes treated with ammonium hydroxide—is actually a low-cost way of making...

Agriculture Dept. OKs 'Pink Slime' for Schools

Mark Russell — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 06:37:00 CDT

"Pink slime" may be too dubious for McDonald's , but apparently the ammonia-treated beef filler is good enough for America's schoolchildren. The US Department of Agriculture is set to give the go-ahead today, allowing schools to use ground beef containing the so-called pink slime, reports ABC News . "That's what upset me....

Who Cares If It's Beef? Taco Bell Is Delicious

Kevin Spak — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:30:48 CST

Taco Bell has been really , really , really adamant in denying accusations that its taco meat is only 36% beef , insisting that it's actually 88% beef. But they don’t have to defend themselves, as far as Sandra Fish is concerned. “I’d be OK with even less than 88% beef in my...

Taco Bell Proclaims: Our Meat Is ... 88% Meat!

Kate Schwartz — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:35:16 CST

The drama over Taco Bell's meat-or-not just keeps getting better and better. After issuing a statement arguing that its meat was, in fact, meat, it has released another statement that attaches a number to that proclamation: "Our seasoned beef recipe contains 88% quality USDA-inspected beef." And that approach is just...

Taco Bell's 'Beef': Just 36% Actual Beef

Matt Cantor — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 07:03:41 CST

Its menus say “beef,” but its packaging cites “meat filling:" Taco Bell has been hit with a class-action suit over “false advertising,” WTOL-11 reports. Chock full of “extenders” and other non-meat items, the chain’s filling has no right to call itself beef, claims the Alabama firm’s suit. Taco Bell will...

Danger Lurks in Ammonia-Treated School Lunch Beef

Jane Yager — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:45:45 CST

Most school lunches and fast-food burgers contain processed beef, a product considered so safe from contamination that the USDA exempted it from meat testing—but that has in fact been found to include E. coli and salmonella, according to a lengthy expose in the New York Times . The product, made...

E. Coli Outbreak in Northeast Ground Beef Kills 2

Mary Papenfuss — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:42:33 CST

A person each from Maine and New York has died in what authorities believe may be an outbreak of E. coli in ground beef that is suspected of sickening dozens of consumers. The suspect beef was produced by New York company Fairbank Farms, which has recalled more than half a...

Ground Beef Rife With E. Coli Risk

Polly Davis Doig — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 08:19:14 CDT

A nausea-inducing feature in the New York Times tells you more than you wanted to know about what's actually in commercially produced hamburger, and why it's especially vulnerable, despite FDA regulation and several fatal outbreaks in recent years, to E. coli contamination. The Times follows the case of a 22-year-old...