Re:Say hello to mechanically separated chicken
by points on Sunday October 03, 2010 @08:12AM
(#1752570)
This is such a pile of BS propaganda.
> "It’s what all fast-food chicken is made from"
No, it's not.
> "Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve—bones, eyes, guts, and all."
No, it's not.
> "because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color."
Yeah WTF? Some evidence is handy to verify those ridiculous hyperbole scary claims.
Perhaps you meant "They add preservatives, coloring and flavoring" like 99% of other processed food.
At least read the wikipedia article on MSM (You're far more likely to eat it in hotdogs than chicken products).
I am flabberghasted this is the TOP story on HACKER news. Some FUD, content free, propaganda piece about chicken that is basically totally factually incorrect.
I'm guessing it's voted up and has been spread around the internet because it fits in with peoples idea/fear of what might be true, if they forget that little matter of 'facts'.
Re:Say hello to mechanically separated chicken
by petercooper on Sunday October 03, 2010 @08:13AM
(#1752574)
With the British media's preoccupation with where food comes from, I've seen stuff like this before and always wondered why they can't artificially flavor other, healthy but still cheap material.
I'd eat a burger/nugget made of mushed up, chemically enhanced cabbage/potato/soya/whatever, as long as it tasted as "good" as the existing thing. Why isn't this more common than mushing up animals? I'd have expected it to be cheaper and people are easily fooled by artificial flavorings, but they'd be slightly more healthy and slightly less gross into the bargain.
Re:Say hello to mechanically separated chicken
by BahUnfair on Sunday October 03, 2010 @08:14AM
(#1752578)
So that's how they make chicken nuggets! That looks suspiciously like pink ice cream.
So they use ammonia to kill all the nasties. The real issue is whether that ammonia ends up in you in large enough quantities to stress your liver and kidneys. Its not enough to say "dangerous stuff used to kill potentially dangerous microbes in our food" you need to show that enough of it is getting into our bodies to actually be a problem. Ammonia is a natural metabolic waste product so we're well adapted to dealing with it already(by pissing and sweating it out as urea).
> "It’s what all fast-food chicken is made from"
No, it's not.
> "Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve—bones, eyes, guts, and all."
No, it's not.
> "because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color."
Yeah WTF? Some evidence is handy to verify those ridiculous hyperbole scary claims.
Perhaps you meant "They add preservatives, coloring and flavoring" like 99% of other processed food.
At least read the wikipedia article on MSM (You're far more likely to eat it in hotdogs than chicken products).
I am flabberghasted this is the TOP story on HACKER news. Some FUD, content free, propaganda piece about chicken that is basically totally factually incorrect.
I'm guessing it's voted up and has been spread around the internet because it fits in with peoples idea/fear of what might be true, if they forget that little matter of 'facts'.
It's been a very long September, hasn't it?
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Meat_&_Poultry_Labe... (jump down to Mechanically Separated Poultry).
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/full_menu/chicken/mcnugg... http://www.wendys.com/food/Product.jsp?family=2&product=...
I'd eat a burger/nugget made of mushed up, chemically enhanced cabbage/potato/soya/whatever, as long as it tasted as "good" as the existing thing. Why isn't this more common than mushing up animals? I'd have expected it to be cheaper and people are easily fooled by artificial flavorings, but they'd be slightly more healthy and slightly less gross into the bargain.
So they use ammonia to kill all the nasties. The real issue is whether that ammonia ends up in you in large enough quantities to stress your liver and kidneys. Its not enough to say "dangerous stuff used to kill potentially dangerous microbes in our food" you need to show that enough of it is getting into our bodies to actually be a problem. Ammonia is a natural metabolic waste product so we're well adapted to dealing with it already(by pissing and sweating it out as urea).
Edited to add: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanically_separated_meat