Hamburger Chef Jamie Oliver Proves McDonald’s Burgers “Unfit for human consumption”

[Emit]

Hamburger chef Jamie Oliver has won his long-fought battle against one of the largest fast food chains in the world – McDonalds. After Oliver showed how McDonald’s hamburgers are made, the franchise finally announced that it will change its recipe, and yet there was barely a peep about this in the mainstream, corporate media.

Oliver repeatedly explained to the public, over several years – in documentaries, television shows and interviews – that the fatty parts of beef are “washed” in ammonium hydroxide and used in the filling of the burger. Before this process, according to the presenter, the food is deemed unfit for human consumption. According to the chef and hamburger enthusiast, Jamie Oliver, who has undertaken a war against the fast food industry, “Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest way for dogs, and after this process, is being given to human beings.”

Besides the low quality of the meat, the ammonium hydroxide is harmful to health. Oliver famously coined this the “the pink slime process.”

“Why would any sensible human being put meat filled with ammonia in the mouths of their children?” Oliver asked.

~snip~

http://politicalblindspot.org/hamburger-chef-jamie-oliver-proves-mcdonalds-burgers-unfit-for-human-consumption/

[leveymg]

1. Whatever it is that McDonald's puts in there, it doesn't taste like hamburger.

Never has.

[byronius]

5. Dude, so love your sig line. Seen it before, still surprises and enlightens me every time.

But I disagree -- before Ray Kroc took over the franchise in the fifties, I believe they peddled actual beef.

[leveymg]

9. My memory doesn't extend to the pre-Kroc era.

But, I still remember when it was in the "millions served." The little round greasy brown discs at McDonald's didn't taste like meat back when cars had tail fins.

And that's from someone who would rather eat a really good bacon cheeseburger than just about anything.

Now, this is a burger:

[byronius]

25. That looks delicious. Too bad I'm vegan, hey?

The fake stuff tastes just as good to me these days, and I feel better afterwards. But each to his own. Unless there's some pleasure without conscience goin' down...

[demwing]

31. the beef above Ghandii's head

draws a silly contrast

[cliffordu]

36. NO PORN ON DU!!!!!

[leveymg]

40. LOL! I have lusted in my heart.

If the cheeseburger is forbidden, try the chicken filet on a croissant:

[cliffordu]

42. O.M.F.G.

[Supersedeas]

48. Whatever it is, we'll pass on it

[BlueJazz]

2. "Yes..and would it be too much trouble to add some extra ammonium hydroxide to that order."

Do you still carry your delicious Sulfuric Acid Fries ??

[rurallib]

3. good reason to support the strike this Thursday

[Booster]

19. It's the 29th isn't it?

[rurallib]

20. yes indeed! tell your friends

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. Key word; sensible.

Does America today seem like a sensible place to you?

[MotherPetrie]

6. This news is over 1-1/2 years old. McD's and other ground beef purveyors still have the option

to use pink slime, since industry-loving USDA allows it, so if I ate meat I wouldn't eat a McDonald's hamburger if you paid me.

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. And Oliver is not a 'hamburger chef' either. He and ABC have been sued by a man who lost his job

at a meat processor:

'Pink slime' lawsuit for Jamie Oliver, ABC and blogger

A worker laid off by a US beef processing company has sued celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, a food blogger and ABC News, saying their use of the term "pink slime" helped him lose his job.

Bruce Smith, 58, was one of about 750 people fired by Beef Products Inc, maker of lean, finely textured beef.

He is seeking $70,000 (£43,000) in damages, saying the company and workers were "maligned" by the "unfair" phrase.

The firm closed three plants and fired workers at its South Dakota office.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20701981

I can't find any news about how the suit has progressed.

[Myrina]

38. I think dude sued the wrong parties in this case.

He Sued Oliver for doing a fact-finding story rather than suing the employer for
a. selling inedible un-burger and
b. firing workers for ... what exactly?

[leftyohiolib]

7. McDonald’s confirms that it’s no longer using ‘pink slime’ chemical in hamburgers

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/mcdonald-confirms-no-longer-using-pink-slime-chemicals-171209662.html

[Orrex]

8. Whew!

It's been at least twelve minutes since we had an "I hate McDonalds" pile-on.

[DeSwiss]

10. K&R

[Scuba]

12. I stop at McUrinals quite often.

But I won't eat their "food".

[NRaleighLiberal]

13. So is bud light. Heavy advertising means heavy sales...weird, isn't it?

[go west young man]

14. If you think the burgers are bad...

check out the McNuggets under a microscope. Lots of strange fibers and spongy stuff but they couldn't find anything that looked like chicken.

[Scootaloo]

26. Well, that's because chicken McNuggets aren't "chicken," per se

On a genetic level, maybe they are in fact chicken. But it's chicken that has been reduced to a very fine paste, loaded with flavorings and colors, binders (gelatine, for instance) and preservatives, so that it can be formed into the "proper" shape of a McNugget. That clear stuff they find? That's the gelatine. The fibers are probably literal fiber used as a secondary binder. The spongy texture is because the "meat" has been dissolved and ground down to extremely fine protein bits, resulting in a texture not far removed from nougat. The colors are, indeed artificial colorings. And the blue and green splotches are probably things that we'd rather not think about.

[Tracer]

39. McNuggets.

My son worked at McDonalds when he was in high school.

One day, he asked me to meet him for lunch there.

Not wanting a burger, I ordered the McNuggets for the very first time. I dipped the nugget into one of the "sauces" that came with the order and promptly spit it out!

I said to my son "I think they made a mistake and gave me butterscotch sauce instead of a chicken sauce."

"No," he said. "That's the sauce they make for the nuggets".

My first (and last) tasting.

[Javaman]

35. beaks and feet.

[quakerboy]

15. There is a Enormous difference in McDonalds if you cross our northern border.

The good ol cheap burger tastes completely different, just a few miles past the checkpoint.

And you wouldnt believe the difference in the "pie". It is less like a dense lump, and more like.. a miniature pocket of pie

The fries... well, Canada can't make a good fry to save its national reputation. So I wont go there.

[deurbano]

18. So that's why you bury them in cheese and gravy!

[quakerboy]

29. Im fairly certaint that is actually, no joke, the case

Though it should be Cheese Curds and gravy.

[laundry_queen]

37. LOL about fries.

I had no idea we were so deficient in that area.

As for burgers - I had a friend that worked in a beef rendering plant that prepared the beef mix for McDonald's and he said it's the only fast-food restaurant he'll eat at. Their 'mix' was basically extra lean beef mixed with a bit of dairy cow fat (gives it their distinctive flavor). He said McDonald's was super picky about their beef - the cleanliness, the quality, everything. So, I don't feel so bad about eating there.

[quakerboy]

47. Interesting

I dont know what it is about fries in Canada. But in any of the 9 provinces ive been to, the best i could find was adequate. Usually deficient, but eagerly offered as poutine for a slight price upgrade. A few were ok, but most were either flavor deficient(BC, PEI) or texture deficient (alberta, Quebec) or both (Ontario).

Potato chips are also deficient in most places in Canada. There are some flavors that seem less common in the states(ketchup, dill) that many would like, I think. But there is a textural difference between Canadian and US chips. Your Kettle chips are ok, but anything else seems to have a texture more akin to pressed dried mashed potatoes than the crispy crunch of a chip. Close to what in the US are marketed as "baked lays", but less appetizing.

I dunno.. I'm working on a theory that potatoes confuse Canadians. Time will see whether it bears out or not.

[Half-Century Man]

16. From years ago, loud on the school bus.

McDonald's is your kind of place
They serve you rattlesnakes
they throw them in your face
there ain't no parking space
stick french fries in between your toes
shove pickles up your nose
McDonald's is your kind of place


Out of the mouth of children, nutritional advice.

[Arugula Latte]

22. Whoa, hadn't thought of that one in decades ...

Damn I'm old.

on edit, here is the advertising campaign that inspired that parody:

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

23. We had a different version

McDonald's is our kind of place
Hamburgers in your face,
Milkshake up your nose,
French fries between your toes,
The last time that I was there,
They fried my underwear,
McDonald's is our kind of place.

[tom_kelly]

17. There's a reason that shit runs right through you n/t

[JoeyT]

21. Runs right through some,

others can't evict it with two weeks notice and a court order. Either way it's unpleasant.

[marions ghost]

24. Thank You Jamie Oliver!

[napoleon_in_rags]

27. I was just researching McDonalds burgers earlier.

I've been looking into the way the buying power of Americans, in terms of commodities, has been shrinking. A minimum wage worker in the past got 5 times the gold per hour, much more oil, and about 2.2 times the other commodities for their wages. But one odd thing has remained constant: The amount of McDonalds Hamburgers you could buy for minimum wage. in 1956, with minimum wage $1, you could buy 6.

Which is about the same today. It bucks the trend. So I started researching, and discovered the shrinkage of the Big Mac, very well documented here:

As well as many other things. McDonalds is doing everything it can to play the role of cheap food it did in the 50's, in today's economy. It seems to part of their values.

I for one don't blame McDonalds for trying to do that, but the picture that emerges is a changing world where people don't want to change, even when they have to. That can lead to some awkward realities. I read this too:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/03/resource-prices
Explaining the difference between the purchasing power of the dollar in terms of commodities, and the official rate of inflation:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/03/resource-prices

this does suggest that while innovation, substitution, and conservation can reduce the price impact of rising demand for fundamentally scarce resources, they can't necessarily eliminate it entirely (or haven't yet, at any rate). Of course, rising demand itself might come to an eventual end given new technologies or—to validate Mr Ehrlich—the ultimate stabilisation and decline of global population. It may still be too early to tell whether humanity faces Malthusian limits or not.

Resource scarcity, the big and scary reality here and now. We can't be as we always have in a changing world.

No matter, I am ready for change. I'll tell you what, that BK veggie burger looks pretty damn good to me, better than Ammonia soaked tiny burgers anyway.

Peace!

[Warren DeMontague]

28. "inedible meat"

I can't believe I used to eat that crap, once. Thank God I stopped well before I became a parent.

[Berlum]

30. The livestock is fed waste from GMO biofuels production

So you are getting a GMO mutant pink-slime burger when you throw your money at industrial ag & food*

* foodlike substance

[RebelOne]

32. I am a vegetarian, but in my meat-eating past,

I wouldn't eat a McDonald's or a Burger King hamburger. I preferred to cook my hamburger at home. At least I knew what was in it.

[FarCenter]

34. What is the problem with ammonium hydroxide?

NH4OH is a weak base. Other weak bases include bicarbonate of soda, alum, and baking powder.

Weak acids used in food include acetic acid used to prevent spoilage of pickles and carbonic acid in soft drinks to kill waterborne pathogens.

[Berlum]

45. Guzzle all you want. it's your mind and body.

But nobody else should unknowingly have to suffer that crap.

?itok=M5KMPqL0

[FarCenter]

46. Scandinavians have eaten fish soaked in sodium hydroxide (lye) for centuries

Not that I think it tastes good, but it is not harmful.

Lutefisk is made from dried whitefish (normally cod in Norway, but ling is also used) prepared with lye in a sequence of particular treatments. The watering steps of these treatments differ slightly for salted/dried whitefish because of its high salt content.

The first treatment is to soak the stockfish in cold water for five to six days (with the water changed daily). The saturated stockfish is then soaked in an unchanged solution of cold water and lye for an additional two days. The fish swells during this soaking, and its protein content decreases by more than 50 percent producing a jelly-like consistency. When this treatment is finished, the fish (saturated with lye) has a pH value of 11–12 and is therefore caustic. To make the fish edible, a final treatment of yet another four to six days of soaking in cold water (also changed daily) is needed. Eventually, the lutefisk is ready to be cooked.

[kentauros]

41. "Hamburger Chef"?!

Wow, talk about dismissing an entire career of great cooking, instruction, and culinary inspiration. Jamie may be a "hamburger enthusiast" (something I hadn't ever seen on any of the shows I've watched him in), but he's primarily an excellent chef that also knows how to instruct and inspire without being an ass about (looking at you, Prima donna Ramsey!)

[DonRedwood]

43. Boo @ pink slime!

[libdem4life]

44. This made a vegetarian out of me many years ago...Diet for a New America

http://www.johnrobbins.info/other-books-by-john/diet-for-a-new-america/

He's from the Robbins in Baskin and Robbins. I'm sure it's only gotten worse.