Schools can opt out of using ‘pink slime’ in lunches, despite its defenders

State education officials say no schools in Washington state include a meat product known as “pink slime” on their menus.

With the backlash mounting over the controversial beef
filler known as “pink slime,” the USDA has decided to
allow school districts to opt out of using the byproducts
that go into millions of pounds of ground beef served in
school lunches.

The meat mix is made up of fatty leftover trimmings and
other byproducts and treated with ammonia before being
used as a filler. While the government not only approves
it, but buys millions of pounds of the product. It’s drawn
widespread criticism, including a mounting online petition
drive seeking to ban its use.

But is pink slime really all that bad? 97.3 KIRO FM
executive producer Dan Restione vehemently defends its
use. In an appearance on Ross and Burbank, he argued it’s
no different than eating hot dogs, which also contain
various meat byproducts.

“What happens to food on the way from its natural habitat
running around in the wild to your supermarket, if you
knew most of it, it’s not appetizing. This is only
blowing up because they came up with the name ‘pink
slime’…McDonald’s didn’t pull it over safety concerns.”

According to Restione, the concern is misguided and he
pointed to the chicken byproducts that make up McNuggets
and other similar products.

“It’s been around for years. I don’t see people dropping
dead. If you eat hamburgers, you’ve probably eaten plenty
of pink slime at one time or another and we’re fine,” said
the former chef.

Restione argued we should be more concerned about eating
red meat in general, after a new Harvard University study
tied red meat consumption to cancer.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re serving your kids Kobe
beef that’s been scrubbed with beer all its life or
Chateaubriand, it’s bad for your kids. Get the red meat
out. Don’t focus on pink slime.”

Parents in our state don’t need to worry about their kids
eating pink slime at school. State education officials
say no schools in Washington use pink slime.

Nate Olson, spokesman for the state Office of the
Superintendent of Public Instruction, says the beef
provider for the state of Washington does not have that
kind of meat.

And the state’s largest school district, Seattle Public
Schools, says it has never used the product. Spokeswoman
Leslie Rogers says the district got a few calls after a
local food blogger claimed pink slime was served at
Seattle schools, but that misconception has been
corrected.

By Josh Kerns, My Northwest.com Editor

The Associated Press contributed to this report