Recent news reports have claimed ground beef is treated with ammonia and other chemicals. With many people wondering if their beef is safe, we spoke to Dr. James Dickson, Iowa State University, about this “pink slime” and its implications.   What is "lean finely textured beef?"
Dr. Dickson: “Lean finely textured beef is lean beef that is taken from trim (the part of the beef carcass that comes after you cut off the steaks and the roasts, etc.), and is used mainly for hamburger. The particular type of trim that goes into lean finely textured beef has a very high fat content. So normally, there would be no way to recover the lean beef out of these trimmings. This process is an efficient way of separating out the lean muscle tissue from the fat. The end result is a product called lean finely textured beef, which is about 95 percent lean beef.
“Lean finely textured beef is a good description of exactly what it is. It’s beef. When people come up with these other terms, like ‘pink slime,’ it is not accurate. Some stories have said this meat is unfit for human consumption, but that is not accurate, either. It is meat that has come from USDA-inspected operations. It is not sludge. It is meat that without being processed…

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“Pink slime.” It’s everywhere, being talked about by everyone – from this mom blogger who is also a meat scientist, and this news report from an Albany, N.Y. TV station, to this food editor’s taste test and this science journal’s take on the matter. We’re curious about what you think! Vote in our poll below or tell us how you feel about lean finely textured beef/”pink slime” in your own words in our comments section.
To learn more about "pink slime," please read our post by Dr. James Dickson, Iowa State University.

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When we asked Dr. Melinda Sothern about new studies linking fatty foods to brain damage, she indicated there is a lot of truth to these studies. She said adults and children alike should be aware of what this means, and provided best practices (beyond avoiding fatty foods) to avoid unwanted changes to the brain.
 
Best Food Facts heard about a few new studies, linking fatty foods to brain damage. We asked one of our Food System Experts, Dr. Melinda Sothern, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, about these studies.
 
Do fatty foods cause brain damage?
Dr. Melinda Sothern: “This is plausible. Simply stated, your environment and behaviors (like eating fatty foods) can alter the makeup of your brain – which can ultimately cause unwanted changes to brain tissue and chemicals. Since this is emerging information, we are still trying to understand all the implications.
“Consuming certain unhealthy fats has been linked to neurological changes that promote obesity. Since the brains of living humans can’t be explored, this idea is being studied in lab animals at this point - primarily rats and mice. Usually, there is study looking at specific genes that have changed over time because of the environment…

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We received this inquiry from Best Food Facts reader Kathleen:
“Can anything be done on how we raise our chickens? The breasts are huge. Way too big. Then they put some solution in them which leaks out white goo while they’re cooking. On top, they have no taste. We can’t afford to buy Bell and Evens. There’s got to be a better way.”
 
To answer the question, we talked with Dr. Casey Owens – Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science and member of the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas, and Dr. Don Conner – Professor and Head of the Department of Poultry Science, Auburn University. Here’s what they had to say.
               
Dr. Casey Owens                     Dr. Don Conner
 
Best Food Facts: This reader feels today’s chicken breasts are simply too large. Are they bigger than they used to be? Why?
Dr. Conner: “Yes. The reason the breasts are larger is because consumers want products that are easier to prepare, which means products that…

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With all the buzz over questions about whether antibiotics fed to animals raised for food cause human antibiotic resistance, it seems apparent that this issue is at the forefront of consumer concerns. As well, we received the questions, “Why are antibiotics fed to livestock inside CAFOs or feedlots? Is this dangerous to humans?” from http://www.fooddialogues.com/. To address the topic, and as a follow up to our previous posts on the subject, we asked experts Dr. Peter Davies and Dr. H. Scott Hurd to respond.
 Peter Davies, BVSC, PhD – University of Minnesota Professor of Animal Science  
 H. Scott Hurd, PhD – Iowa State University Associate Professor of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine
 
Why are antibiotics fed to livestock inside CAFOs or feedlots?
 
Dr. Davies:
Several purposes – mostly related to maintaining animal health. The most obvious use is for therapeutic reasons – to treat animals with disease; they may also be used for anaphylaxis – meaning if there is an outbreak of disease in a group of animals – which treats all animals because of their exposure to the affected animals. In some instances, antimicrobials are used following…

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