General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Gerald ZIRNSTEIN" doesn't resonate like "pink slime". He's who coined it. Sorry.
I'm sorry to inflict that term. I've been repulsed by that coinage not even wanting to see it, so I'm sorry for inflicting it on anybody else, but knowing who did the first inflicting is significant, or maybe a future Jeopardy answer.
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http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-05/D9UT7VP80.htm
[font size=5]The making of the term 'pink slime'[/font]
By CANDICE CHOI
"Pink slime" was almost "pink paste" or "pink goo."
The microbiologist who coined the term for lean finely textured beef ran through a few iterations in his head before pressing send on an email to a co-worker at the U.S. Department of Agriculture a decade ago. Then, the name hit him like heartburn after a juicy burger.
"It's pink. It's pasty. And it's slimy looking. So I called it pink slime," said Gerald Zirnstein, the former meat inspector at the USDA. "It resonates, doesn't it?"
The pithy description fueled an uproar that resulted in the main company behind the filler, Beef Products Inc., closing three meat plants this month. The controversy over the filler, which is made of fatty bits of beef that are heated and treated with ammonium to kill bacteria, shows how a simple nickname can forever change an entire industry.
In fact, beef filler had been used for decades before the nickname came about. But most Americans didn't know -- or care -- about it before Zirnstein's vivid moniker was quoted in a 2009 article by The New York Times on the safety of meat processing methods. ....
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AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)yellowcanine
(35,692 posts)denverbill
(11,489 posts)Few people had any idea companies were putting the crap into their burger because it was never divulged. How can people object to something they haven't been told about?
Few people in their right minds would voluntarily eat that crap. Grocers know it. Packing house operators know it. So instead of telling people what they were doing, they went ahead and slipped it into hamburger without telling anyone.
If the stuff is as 'safe' as the USDA says, why not market it on it's own? Sell it as burger extender or 'finely textured beef product'. People eat Cheez Whiz so who knows?
KarenS
(4,022 posts)It wasn't the name at all. It what was happening surreptitiously to ground beef.
If I want to eat a hot dog or bologna then I do so knowing that there's a 'yuck factor'.
But when I purchased ground beef, I thought it was actually just ground beef.