Text 1400, 66 rader
Skriven 2006-05-14 18:49:48 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av SEAN DENNIS
Ärende: bad things 666
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SD> I can't eat at a McDonald's anymore as I know what goes 
SD> into their meat products. [g]

You guys keep pushing me into a position where I feel I have to defend
a company I really don't care for. 

Would you please give me a few details about that?  Because say
whatever you want about their burgers - and I know that they're as
mediocre as they come - they are 100% beef.  Now, they're not
premium Black Angus ground round, to be sure.  But McDonalds themselves
advertise 100% beef - which they could not do if there were fillers
in the patties - and I also happen to know the composition of the meat.

First of all, do you know that all meat products for McD's
in North and Central America (sausage patties, burgers, Canadian 
Bacon, and McRibs) are produced by Lopez Foods at plants in 
Oklahoma City and Columbus, Nebraska?  

McDonalds gets their beef from the dairy industry; that is, they buy
retired milk cattle to slaughter for their burger. Dairy cattle is not
raised with meat in mind, so it is generally leaner (much leaner)
than beefers.  Burgers that are too lean are not acceptable to most
people when cooked, so McD's also buys the lower part of beefer 
flanks (the meat resembles pork bacon in it's fatty content) to 
grind in with the dairy beef.

They control the amount of fat to produce a burger with a 20% fat
content - just about what most people buy in the grocery store for
themselves actually, and BELOW the limits set by the federal 
government for ground beef fat content.  (Burger joints are allowed
to use ground meat that is 30% fat, and many of them do.)

Now, as far as the sausage goes, I doubt that it is any different
than any other sausage on the market.  Which is to say that it is
likely to be about 30% fat, 70% or so pork (and I don't mean lips
and cheek and assholes - big sausage companies like Lopez are bulk
buyers and use pork shoulders, loins, etc. along with a little 
gristle, tripe, and skin - nothing that I wouldn't use in making 
scrapple or sausage at home.) And there's probably some lactose
in there for color regulation, and the spices and stuff, and there
might even be some added water which isn't here or there to me or
you because we're buying them with the water already cooked out, so
that's between Lopez Foods and Ronald McDonald.

You won't shock me by saying that the sausage might contain less-
than-premium quality content, or even meat on the verge of spoiling,
but the meat packing industry has come a long way from the days of
Upton Sinclair.

If you do have actual cites for unwholesome things that go into
McDonalds meats, by all means share them.  I'm interested.

SD> Something else too: technically, Taco Bell workers can get away 
SD> with not wearing gloves (if the juristiction allows it) because 
SD> Taco Bell doesn't actually COOK anything. 

They wouldn't get away with it here.  CT and MA require food
service workers who touch food to wear gloves.  The lettuce and
cheese and stuff is touched.  



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