Some 80% of antibiotics sold in this country go to farmers to put in animal feed, and while the livestock and pharmaceutical industries now like to pretend it’s for disease prevention, the primary motive for shoving drugs down animals’ throats is because antibiotics have the happy side effect of encouraging growth. The practice is so widespread that it would take one of the country’s largest beef-buyers to result in any effective change, which is why New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter has called on McDonald’s to ditch drugged-up meat for good. [More]
beef
Chipotle Price Hike To Hurt Steak-Lovers’ Wallets The Most
By 4.29.14
Earlier this month, Chipotle (aka the restaurant your annoying co-worker calls “Chipoltay”) announced its first price hike in three years, citing increased costs for ingredients across the eatery’s menu. Now the company’s CFO is saying that customers who like the Chipotle steak burrito will likely be the ones who notice the biggest change in their lunch bill. [More]
Beef Prices Hit All-Time Highs In U.S. Just As Grilling Season Comes Within Reach
By 4.9.14
It’s all so clear, in the dream: I can see the smoke rising from the grill, hear the sizzle of juicy steaks and almost smell the delicious aroma of chargrilled meat wafting on the warm air. And while warmer weather might be just within our grasp, the beef part of that winter fever dream will come at a higher cost than in the past. [More]
Was Massive Beef Recall Caused By Dairy Cows With Eye Cancer?
By 2.21.14
We know that millions of pounds of beef that came through a California slaughterhouse and meat processing plant have been recalled because the plant “processed diseased and unsound animals.” Well, okay, but what does that mean? We don’t know that for sure yet, but the Village Voice talked to one rancher whose entire 2013 output is part of that massive recall. [More]
California Plant Shuts Down After Recalling 8.7 Million Pounds Of Beef “Unfit For Human Food”
By 2.10.14
In what sounds like the perfect storm of awfulness and complete inedibility, a Northern California plant has announced it’s voluntarily closing after issuing a recall for 8.7 million pounds of beef. Why? Because federal officials say the plant “processed diseased and unsound animals” without a full federal inspection, resulting in products that are “unfit for human food.” Yum. [More]
Jack In The Box Debuts “Bacon Insider” Burger With Bacon/Beef Frankenpatty, 6 Strips Of Bacon
By 1.30.14
Did someone mention bacon? Oh that’s right, I did, three times in the headline. I had to, because the Jack in the Box chain has apparently left its finger on the bacon button and refused to let up. Its new “Bacon Insider” burger not only has bacon+beef patty, but layers six slices of bacon on top and adds a bacon mayo. [More]
Do Food Regulators Care If Foreign Farmers Use Veterinary Drugs Banned In The U.S.?
By 8.21.13
Later this week, the United Nations food standards agency will be meeting in Minneapolis to discuss, among other things, standards for ten veterinary drugs that are banned for use in the U.S. but not globally. Fearing that continued use of these drugs by farmers in other countries could result in these banned chemicals still reaching the American market, a group of consumer advocates have called on federal regulators to not only take a tougher stance, but to stop encouraging the use of these drugs elsewhere. [More]
Chipotle Considers Using Beef Treated With Antibiotics
By 8.14.13
Chipotle prides itself on its meat policy of responsibly raised, antibiotic-free beef, chicken and pork. But that could be changing soon, as the burrito chain says it’s considering the idea of allowing cows that have been treated with antibiotics to remain in the supply chain. It’s only thinking about it so far — until now, only sick animals were allowed to be treated and then they had to be removed from the rest of the herd, and not end up in stores. [More]
E. Coli-Laden Beef Traced To Bi-Lo And Winn-Dixie Stores
By 8.5.13
Last week, we shared the massive 25-ton ground beef recall out of the National Beef Packing Company in Kansas. There haven’t been any illnesses reported yet: the germs were found during routine testing. Still, it’s good to know which retailers that contaminated meat went to, in case you happen to have picked some up. [More]
25 Tons Of E. Coli Contaminated Ground Beef Recalled
By 8.2.13
National Beef Packing Company is recalling a 25 tons of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. No, we didn’t forget that we already ran this story in mid-June: this is a second and entirely different recall that’s twice as large. [More]
11 Tons Of Maybe Contaminated Ground Beef Recalled In Midwest And South
By 6.21.13
National Beef in Kansas shipped out 22,737 pounds of beef (about 11 tons) that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, a nasty strain that’s particularly dangerous to the elderly. Meat from the affected packages may have ended up at retailers and food service establishments in eleven different states. [More]
Gird Yourselves, Grill Masters: Beef Prices Have Hit An All-Time High
By 5.7.13
For those vegetarians or red meat abstainees out there, rest easy and only keep reading if you want to rub some bad news in your burger-loving friend’s face at the grill this summer: The price of wholesale beef is at an all-time high right now, which means costlier burgers, steaks and any other kind of cattle you’d throw on the fire. [More]
A Pork Chop By Any Other Name: Pork & Beef Industries Rename 350 Cuts Of Meat
By 4.4.13
Today is a day for yours truly to talk about meat. But instead of horse or guinea pigs, let’s bring the discussion back around to more standard fare, beef and pork. In order to ramp up sales for grilling season and make shopping for meat a little easier, the pork and beef industries have banded together to give new names to 350 cuts of meat. [More]
Trader Joe’s Employees Misleading Customers About The Drugged-Up Meat On Stores’ Shelves
By 2.26.13
Trader Joe’s, like most grocery stores, sells quite a bit of meat from animals that have been treated with completely unnecessary antibiotics. But customers around the country say that some TJ staffers are outright lying about the store’s products being drug-free. [More]
Horsemeat Found In UK School Meals But Kids Likely Didn’t Eat Much Of It
By 2.15.13
Someone over there in Europe, please, can you just make it stop? Reading about the ever spiraling horsemeat scandal hurts our horse-loving hearts so, but it doesn’t sound like the scandal is going away any time soon. UK officials say horse DNA was found in cottage pies sent to 47 schools in Lancashire, but the kids probably didn’t eat much of it. Whew. [More]
Horsemeat Scandal Widens To 16 Countries & Everyone’s Busy Pointing Fingers
By 2.11.13
Over the course of the last few weeks, Europe has been rocked by the revelation that horsemeat has been found in various “beef” products, from lasagna to burgers. At first it seemed the scandal was contained to the U.K., Ireland and France, but now things are spiraling outward to include as many as 16 countries. Finding out who to blame is still very much up in the air, however. [More]
U.K. Health Officials Find “Beef” Lasagna Meals Containing 60%-100% Horse Meat
By 2.8.13
Our neighbors across the pond are caught in an equine-lover’s nightmare: First, beef hamburgers on shelves were found to contain horse DNA and recalled, after authorities traced the contamination back to a couple processing plants. Burger King got caught up in it as well, although no burgers with horse in them made it to stores. And now the scandal has spread to frozen “beef” lasagna meals. [More]
McDonald’s Calls For Definition Of “Sustainable” Beef
By 9.27.12
McDonald’s is a massive, global company. As such, it can stand to save piles of cash in the long-run by making some minor changes that cut down on its energy costs. But the largest chunk of McDonald’s CO2 footprint involves a product for which the company claims there are no sustainability standards: the beef in its burgers. [More]
