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News > 'Pink slime' products to be permanently removed from commissary shelves
'Pink slime' products to be permanently removed from commissary shelves

Posted 5/18/2012 Email story   Print story

    


by Brandice J. O'Brien
72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs


5/18/2012 - TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. (AFNS) -- In recent weeks, "pink slime" oozed from the headlines.

While commissary officials assure customers that the lean finely textured beef antibacterial process has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration for decades, the officials made the decision recently to phase out these products in response to customer concerns.

"Although the USDA continues to assure us this process is safe, we have listened to our customers and modified our contracts to require that our ground beef suppliers only sell us products not treated with the LFTB process," said Chris Burns, the Defense Commissary Agency director of sales at DeCA Headquarters in Fort Lee, Va.

The process will be complete by the end of the month. In the meantime, commissaries are carrying USDA organic ground beef or USDA all-natural ground beef, neither of which has pink slime.

"All stores are scheduled to have these modified contracts in place by the end of May 2012," Burns said.

The decision to replace ground-beef products that use pink slime came as a result of an outpour of concern from recent months of media broadcasts on the subject. Despite concerns and unflattering descriptions of the antibacterial process, the ground beef industry officials insists that pink slime is safe, and even beneficial, to a consumer.

The American Meat Institute, a trade association for the fresh meat industry, reports that the use of pink slime has contributed to a 55 to 60 percent decrease in the occurrence of E. coli. Additionally, it has made use of lean meat that would otherwise be wasted.

Regardless, it will be replaced, officials said.

"First and foremost, the commissary is a quality-of-life benefit for military customers, and it is important to us that we provide a balanced product assortment that meets the needs of our customers," Burns said.



tabComments
5/7/2013 2:01:02 AM ET
Agriculture is the sector in which from many years tradition is followed by people but this trend is now changing slowly. Because of coming new technologies agriculture sector is also having weight-age in these days...
Agricultural Product Exporters, httpwww.laxmiagro.in
 
5/24/2012 11:26:56 AM ET
Go to any food court at noon on any Air Force Base and you won't see people too worried about their health.
John G, Virginia
 
5/23/2012 4:13:57 PM ET
You've got to be kidding about the dihydrogen monoxide...its a hoax. It's simple water referred to by an unfamiliar name...followed by a listing of real effects of this chemical in an attempt to convince people that it should be regulated labeled as hazardous or banned. The hoax is intended to illustrate how the lack of scientific literacy and an exaggerated analysis can lead to misplaced fears.1 Dihydrogen monoxide shortened to DHMO is a name for water that is consistent with basic rules of chemical nomenclature2 but is not among the names published by IUPAC3 and is almost never used.
H2O, SAFB
 
5/23/2012 2:15:02 PM ET
I hope they reconsider this move. I like the 93 percent hamburger from the commissary it is a higher quality than the stuff at Walmart and it is considerably cheaper. Organic is a scam and if want top quality lean ground beef buy steak and grind it yourself. This organic meat will probably cost the same.
Mark, Nellis
 
5/21/2012 2:10:51 PM ET
@Cody - No kidding about the Dihydrogen Monoxide. I've heard that it contaminates nearly all of this country's water supply and yet nobody seems to be doing anything about it
Timothy, Maryland
 
5/21/2012 1:28:27 PM ET
Kudos to DeCA on this decision. I for one will start buying meat from the commissary again.
Katherine, Scott AFB
 
5/21/2012 10:39:01 AM ET
@Bill Brockmanbecause consumers are lazy and god forbid they make their own decisions. Its easier to let the government make their decisions for them than for them to go and do the research themselves...ignorance is bliss after all
FB, Charleston
 
5/21/2012 5:18:33 AM ET
I agree with you Bill but we are always knee jerking on everything.
TSgt, FLO RIDA
 
5/21/2012 12:11:42 AM ET
If the Commissary REALLY wants to provide a balanced product assortment that meets the needs of their customers they should continue to offer lean finely textured beef instead of removing a safe healthy product from their shelves.
VL Williams, Sioux City IA
 
5/20/2012 2:47:00 PM ET
Bill I agree to labeling pink slime. If you chose to feed dog-food quality meat to your family knock yourself out. I don't feel too sorry for the people in an industry who surreptitiously added processed byproducts to a product most people assumed was quality meat.
DC, MD
 
5/20/2012 3:09:10 AM ET
Mr BrockmanIt seems consumers have decided by choosing not to eat products with that ingredient. The stores companies distributors have answered their call.Sir if anything I believe this is how America should be let the people decided the fate of a product through Free Market. The government never had a chance to weigh in on this and actually with unbiased fair reporting by responsible journalism this is how it should be.I am sorry that workers maybe out of a job but America prospered on the peoples ingenuity. Hopefully the affected companies and meat processors can market a new product. If they did and I worked marketing for them I sure has heck wouldn't use the word slime.Thanks
Michael, Deployed
 
5/19/2012 2:18:51 PM ET
Still can buy cigarettes at the commissary an we know what they can do...
D, WPAFB
 
5/18/2012 6:56:06 PM ET
Pink slime is a term used by critics. And oozed And I highly doubt the industry officials whoever they are if they exist at all you weakly cite here ever used these terms when saying it was safe to use. Your article is editorialzed garbage I'd expect better from Air Force news. Stick with the facts. I don't want infotainment and heresay from the DoD.
eartheditor, Kansas
 
5/18/2012 5:22:05 PM ET
Once the product is removed you will be paying top dollar for the replacement product.
Les Lloyd, TacomaWA
 
5/18/2012 4:43:03 PM ET
Good thing this stuff is almost as dangerous as Dihydrogen Monoxide
Cody, Texas
 
5/18/2012 2:00:26 PM ET
This seems a knee jerk reaction. Hundreds of hard working folks at processing plants have already lost their jobs over this overblown scandal. Why not just label stuff and let the consumers decide?
Bill Brockman, Atlanta GA
 
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