Do you want ammonia with that?

At a meeting this morning, I heard a mom discussing the use of ammonia in beef to kill E.coli.  I was shocked and appalled to think of industrial cleaner being regularly used in food.  When I came home, I was compelled find out more.  Here's what I discovered:

With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, beef processed with ammonia has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef in 2008 alone.  Worse yet, beef processed with ammonia has been routinely exempted from testing for Salmonella and E.coli.  When testing has been done on the ammonia-processed meat, it has been found to actually have higher levels of both salmonella and e.Coli than traditionally processed meat. Yuck!  I'm so glad I'm a vegetarian.  

The total lack of concern for the health and wellbeing of consumers by farmers, people in the food industry and the American governement is both scary and terribly disappointing.  It's truly horrifying to think of all the toxins that we are consuming and being exposed to unknowingly.  

Source: The New York Times: Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned