Meat&Poultry - January 2012 - 10

Business Notes

QSRs stop using ammonium hydroxide technology for beef
McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell have reportedly stopped using lean beef trimmings treated with ammonium hydroxide. Lean beef trimmings are commonly used to produce various lower-fat blends of ground meat. Beef Products Inc., (BPI) Dakota Dunes, SD, treats trimmings using this process, which it developed. It rids the beef trimmings of E.

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coli bacteria and other pathogens by using ammonium hydroxide, a government-approved chemicals used at various stages during processing to kill pathogens. Ammonium hydroxide was designated as “generally recognized as safe” for use in food by the Food and Drug Administration in 1974 and it has been used as a leavening agent in baked foods as Theno well as a way to manage the pH in many types of food products since then. In 2001, the Food Safety and Inspection Service approved the use of ammonium hydroxide as a food safety tool. The fast-food chains’ decision to stop using this technology was lamented by David Theno, a well-known food-safety expert and industry consultant who has advised BPI. “It’s just a shame that an activist with an agenda can really degrade the safety of our food supply,” he said in a story posted on ArgusLeader.com. Theno called BPI’s process “extraordinarily effective” in making beef safer. In a Meat MythCrushers video from the American Meat Institute in conjunction with the American Meat Science Association posted Oct. 17, Gary Acuff, Ph.D., director for food safety and professor of food microbiology at Texas A&M Univ., explains: “One form of ammonia called ammonium hydroxide is sometimes used in processing foods like baked goods, cheeses, chocolates and some beef products – this is not the same type of ammonia in household cleaners.” (Articles, fact sheets and a Q&A about the safe use of ammonium hydroxide in beef production are also included on the web page.) BPI once said its treated product was in 70 percent of the hamburger sold in the US. But as a result of the fallout from activist charges, it has lost 25 percent of this business – but this part of the business is stabilizing, the article on ArgusLeader.com said. BPI’s process uses ammonium hydroxide gas, which contains a minute amount of ammonia to kill bacteria in lean beef trimmings, the company said. Ammonia is used extensively in the food industry, and it is found naturally in meat. Basically a mixture of water and ammonia, ammonium hydroxide is utilized in baked goods, cheeses, candy and other products, the International Food Information Council said. ■

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Meat&Poultry - January 2012

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