On March 1, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDAFSIS) declared a new rule that requires raw meat and poultry producers to list the total calories, calories from fat, total grams of fat and saturated fat as well as protein, sodium, cholesterol and other vitamin and mineral information on their labels.
This means that rather than a ground beef package just saying “90 percent lean,” the package must list calories per serving, grams of total fat, saturated fat and protein.
Shortly after the new ruling, the “pink slime” controversy rose to prominence. “Pink slime” is a nickname given to the product of meat trimmings that are simmered to separate fat and meat. This mixture is then spun in a centrifuge to split further and then sent through pipes that spray it with ammonia. It’s then shipped to packing plants and grocery stores that may use it as a ground beef filler.
The new laws do not require ground beef packages to label whether it contains the “Lean Finely Textured Beef” (LFTB), although many activists and politicians believe it should. On Friday March 30, U.S. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and 10 co-sponsors introduced a bill to require beef products that include LFTB to be labeled appropriately.
But, Russell Cross, the former USDAFSIS administrator, defended LFTB in USA Today, saying that LFTB is 100 percent beef “because nothing is being added that is not beef.” Cross also cites a 1993 E. Coli outbreak that now forms the basis of the use of ammonia as a pathogen reduction intervention to create safer food.
Whether or not processors choose to include the presence of “pink slime” on their labels is – at this point – up to them. But, in order to do so in a quality manner, they may want to use a color label printer to create the best custom labels.
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