Finally, McDonalds announced that for the past five months they no longer have added ammonium hydroxide to their beef burgers. Why did McDonalds use a chemical, ammonium hydroxide used in fertilizers, household cleaners and explosives, to put in its hamburgers during production?
It's good that McDonald’s finally confirmed that it’s no longer using ‘ammonium hydroxide, a pinkish chemical in hamburgers. Last week McDonald's announced that, as of last August, it has stopped using ammonium hydroxide in the production of its hamburgers. See the February 1, 2012 Yahoo News article by Eric Pfeiffer, "McDonald’s confirms that it’s no longer using ‘pink slime’ chemical in hamburgers," MSNBC reports about the chemical.
Why should it have been in your burgers for so long? The article, "McDonald’s confirms that it’s no longer using ‘pink slime’ chemical in hamburgers," also lists other chemicals in your food when you don't prepare unprocessed foods at home.
When you eat out in various fast-food eateries and restaurants most anywhere or buy ready-to-eat or processed packaged and frozen foods, you can check out the International Business Times that lists some other questionable chemicals showing up in popular foods you buy in the USA.
Some of these chemicals added to various foods by numerous manufacturers include, propylene glycol, which is similar to anti-freeze, but less toxic. It protects products from becoming too solid. It goes in some (but not all) ice creams to prevent you from chewing on ice crystals from the water separating from the milk or cream in your smooth, creamy frozen desserts such as ice cream.
The red food coloring called carmine is a chemical made from crushed cochineal, small red beetles that burrow into cacti. The manufacturers grind up the husks of this beetle. Now it's a goo of red coloring found in various foods such as some types of cranberry juice or M&Ms, according to the article.
Why don't you just buy a bag of frozen cranberries and puree them in your blender with water or other fruits, juices, and perhaps a banana or blueberries instead of buying some of those juice bottles with the red coloring added?
Why is shellac added to foods when it's supposed to make wood look shiny? Shellac goes onto some types of candies to give the candies a shine. Shellac is natural and can be labeled that way because it comes from the female Lac beetle. So it can be labeled as 'natural' food coloring.
What about dough enhancers? You might look at L-cysteine which is used to enhance dough. But L-cysteine comes from hair, hooves, and bristles of animals. Some people take tablets of L-cysteine as a vitamin supplement. But you should look at where it comes from and what it is supposed to do not just to the dough but to you. It enhances the dough. Does it enhance you? In what ways?
A gum base called lanolin is fine in shampoos or conditioners for your hair. But it's put in chewing gum. Lanolin comes from the wool of sheep. It also goes into some vitamin D3 supplements. Next time you look at your vitamin D3 supplements, find out whether they contain lanolin and/or fish oil. Lanolin makes the chewing gum 'chewy.'
Cheese may contain additives such as silicon dioxide. You may find this in some supplements as well such as various vitamins. It's an anti-caking agent found in shredded cheese. Some cheese makers use cellulose powder and some use silicon dioxide to keep the shredded and powdered cheese from caking. It's also added to some brands of fast-food chili.
Check out the McDonald's statement about why they stopped using ammonia-treated beef in their burgers: In a statement posted on its website. Ammonia-treated beef for hamburgers was removed in August 2011. One of the reasons for the removal is that global standards had to be 'aligned' for how beef is sourced around the world. For example, why would the chemical be added the the beef in the US and not in other countries?
The U.S. Agriculture Department classifies the chemical as "generally recognized as safe." Mc Donald's denies the removal of that chemical from the beef came due to a very public campaign against ammonium hydroxide by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. Check out the video of Jamie Oliver where he demonstrates how ammonium hydroxide was used on meat. See the video on Hulu.com.
You can watch video of Jamie Oliver (ABC-'s Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution video) showing the process of using ammonium hydroxide on meat here.
Ammonium hydroxide was used to kill bacteria in meat
In the food industry, anti-microbial agents included ammonium hydroxide instead of other anti-bacterial, anti-viral substances that come from foods. For example, you have anti-microbial plants and oils ranging from turmeric to olive oil, but the chemical was used instead of a substance originating from food itself. The question is do anti-microbial agents make inedible meat edible by treating the meat? Check out the video on meat treatment.
Why is ammonium hydroxide the usual production process by the USDA? Nobody really knows if the chemical is in any given food unless you're growing your own produce from organic seeds or have your own animal farm. There's an official name to the process of adding ammonium hydroxide to meat. It's called "mechanically separated meat". On some labels it's titled, "meat product."
If you buy meat that's not treated and cook all your food at home, then you know more about what you're eating. When you eat in fast-food eateries or restaurants, you don't ask where the burgers came from. It's left in the hands of the eatery owner or manager.
This whole implication goes back to the basics of eating more at home with local, organic produce. Still, when you want to buy wild-caught fish or grass-fed beef that's organic, you need to know the entire chain of where your food originates and what type of processing is done.
Most people worry whether any chemicals added to the foods build up in their bodies over the decades and how they change your system such as slowing or speeding up aging and entropy. For others, it's whether they're allergic to what's in their foods.
The point is why would food served in the USA be more processed with chemicals than foods served in Europe or globally from local meats? But it's good to know the chemical is no longer being used by McDonalds in the USA since last August.
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