A former USDA scientist and whistleblower, Gerald Zirnstein, now grinds every pound of his own hamburger mear because he refuses to touch the stuff sitting in your local supermarket.
Why? In 2018 the USDA reclassified "pink slime" (officially called Lean Finely Textured Beef) as "ground beef".
Zero warning or disclosure to you, the consumer. That means it can now legally be mixed into any package of ground beef on the shelf.
What exactly is "pink slime"? It’s the leftover beef trimmings that used to go in dog food and cooking oil. The industry heats the waste, spins it in a centrifuge to separate the fat, blasts it with ammonia gas to kill bacteria, presses it into bricks, flash-freezes it, and then sells it back to you as “beef.”