In the factory "it is sprayed with ammonium hydroxide to kill microbes which cause food poisoning."
"The producers behind the beef product known as 'pink slime', pictured, plans to file a defamation lawsuit in the wake of a publicity storm over the meat product"
Vintagevista
Posts: 8,879
Sun City, California, US
I'd say they have a case - especially since the product depicted in SO MANY OF THE STORIES
Was usually not even the actual product!!.
They were yelling "Pink Beef Slime"
Remember this??? And showing images of chicken coming out of a deboneing line
Because once people in the industry said "hey assholes - that not even the right product in your story"
They went right on with it and still used it.
It was reckless and ignorant reporting. They have a case - just as a car company would have a case about a report of Ford cars catching fire - and seeing footage used where the tv crew used incendiary devices to stage the shot of a burning CHEVY.
Vintagevista
Posts: 8,879
Sun City, California, US
Stephen Dawson wrote: I don't think that ABC will have any difficulty in finding dozens of expert witnesses to explain exactly why pink slime is unhealthy.
And dozens of people that went through the process of approving the product for human consumption - and dozens that inspected the plants - and dozens that will say "people have been eating this for years with no problem - until somebody gave it a disgusting nickname and gave it a negative story just-about-every-day in the media."
And have a hard time finding anybody that can say that they were harmed, out of the Thousands and thousands, of tons produced in the past
And consumed as a matter of course -
the vast majority of people reading this (outside of the vegetarians) have eaten this product and we're still around.
Vintagevista wrote: And dozens of people that went through the process of approving the product for human consumption - and dozens that inspected the plants - and dozens that will say "people have been eating this for years with no problem - until somebody gave it a disgusting nickname and gave it a negative story just-about-every-day in the media."
And have a hard time finding anybody that can say that they were harmed, out of the Thousands and thousands, of tons produced in the past
And consumed as a matter of course -
the vast majority of people reading this (outside of the vegetarians) have eaten this product and we're still around.
Whatever you want to call "pink slime" it is not "ground beef".
It was secretly added to ground beef.
That is wrong, and the consumer has a right to know.
Not that I agree or disagree, but we lost a lot of plants here because of it and it cost thousands of people their jobs. My parents both worked in beef packing plants and they said while the practice has been used for years (they worked in one back in the 80s) no one had a problem with it until now, and you can blame the FDA. Had they not said it was safe it never would have been used.
Vintagevista
Posts: 8,879
Sun City, California, US
There's a parallel from a few decades back.
There was this huge hullabaloo about contamination in food items
Every other night there was a media drumbeat.
Arsenic! in _________
Phosphorous contamination in ________
Nitrates in water!
Persian cat eye-boogers in applejuice! (ok, I made that up)
The point was - that behind the scenes the technology had jumped for the first time - to be able to measure at the parts per billion level in ordinary testing. So, things that had nothing at the parts per million level - had trace amounts at the parts per billion level. (3PPB of arsenic for example)
An finally, somebody pointed out that these levels had always been there and that they were non-issues in anything but a technical level.
The turning point was when runoff water standards were proposed - where companies had to test the rainwater running away from their plant for contamination. (With doom laden threats for non-compliance)
Then somebody pointed out that the ambient rainwater failed their proposed standards, before even hitting the ground and that the first ticket had to be issued to God.
So, when the media drumbeat on this Beef product, caught on - (once it had a catchy nickname) The basis of "Hey, You people have been eating this for decades to no ill effect" - was lost.
My brother works for the USDA heading up meat inspectors and inspecting plants. When I mentioned that news story to him, he got pissed. I think he knew right away how misleading the story was.
ABC wanted to up their ratings so they cooked up a grabber. We all fell for it, for a while.
I hope they do end up paying but will it equal what they made out of it? I wonder.
It also makes me wonder if NBC was sued over their coverage of Pintos fuel tanks exploding (which they rigged with a detonator) or their story of baby foods and toxic chemicals being transported by the same tanker trucks?
One always has to somewhat take many news articles with tongue in cheek, question what you hear and maybe even do a bit of research before jumping to conclusions. The media is after all, out to make a buck.
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