gnomebitten wrote:
what youre probably thinking of is ammonium hydroxide, not rat poison. its an antimicrobial agent, which is why its used for cleaning too. it, like most things, is basically safe until you have too much of it. the solutions used for decontamination are more safe than not using decontaminates would be and are generally very dilute solutions. some places, like canada, restrict its usages so not everybody uses it but they use other antimicrobial agents in its place.
the pink slime you are referring to exists in most ground beef products and is simply beef trimmings ground down and fat separated. its an additive that is just beef and is there to reduce cost and to avoid waste, which is the whole purpose of ground beef and why youre ordering a burger and not a steak anyways.
basically you and everything you own and come in contact with is covered in poo anyways so why stress over it
Actually you are a little off. Ammonium hydroxide is used as a main ingredient in
rat poison.
Its also a byproduct of using
ammonia gas chambers to sterilize pink slime meats. You'll notice that it doesn't actually remove the bacteria in the article.
The article is a little old and some fast food companies have stopped or reduced the use of their pink slime products, its still widely used though.
The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for ammonium hydroxide classifies the substance as very hazardous when in contact with skin. Ammonium hydroxide may produce tissue damage on mucous membranes. The human digestive system is basically one long mucous membrane from mouth to finish. So you see we have a problem, either the people making the MSDS sheets or the people putting the stuff in our food are lying. No way around it.