Thanks to findings presented by the New York Times, the USDA took away an exemption from routine testing it had given to meat from Beef Products, Inc., which supplies ammonia-injected beef to grocery stores and fast food chains including McDonald’s and Burger King.

The Times found that some nasty stuff was popping up in the ammonia-injected meat:

But government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays.

Who knew that the special sauce in your favorite fast food burger could double as an industrial cleaner?

Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned [New York Times]
(Thanks, David!)

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