For all of the Jamie Olivers and nausea-inducing exposés, ammonium hydroxide–treated meat is still very much a part of our nation’s food system. Many fast-food chains won’t even touch the stuff, but Politico learns that seven states have put in their orders for the so-called “lean finely textured beef” for the 2013-14 school year; that’s 2 million pounds of pink slime destined for lunch trays across the country. Authorities once again claim that the chemically reconfigured “remnant scraps of cattle carcasses that were once deemed too fatty to go into human food” are totally safe to eat, and even nutritious to boot. Regardless, kids in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Texas might want to start brown-bagging it. [Politico, Earlier, Related]
