Jamie Oliver, Pink Slime, Ammonium Hydroxide and McDonald’s – Fact Check

A message that circulates the Internet claims that popular UK-based chef Jamie Oliver just won a battle against McDonald’s forcing them to stop using “pink slime” – a term used to describe washing meat trimmings with ammonium hydroxide.

MIXTURE, OUTDATED

What’s true? Jamie Oliver launched a media campaign against the use of ammonium hydroxide, colloquially referred to as “pink slime”, which was used by some fast food restaurants to preserve meat. Soon after the campaign, McDonalds US stopped using this process.
What’s false? Oliver did not prove ammonium hydroxide was “unfit for human consumption” nor did we win any legal battle forcing McDonalds to stop using this process.
What’s outdated? All of this happened in 2011, yet social media rumours implying this is “news” carried on spreading well over a decade later.
What’s misleading? Despite Jamie Oliver being British, McDonalds UK never used ammonium hydroxide. McDonalds in the USA did up until 2011.

Ammonium Hydroxide is a chemical aimed at preserving the meat for as long as possible to prevent decomposition and to ward of bacteria such as E-coli. It is composed of ammonia in water. Processed meat treated with ammonia hydroxide turns pink, thus is often referred to as “pink slime”. The process of adding ammonium hydroxide is considered “generally safe” by the FDA, and thus the practise is not illegal across the United States.

While the message contains elements of truth, it is also misleading and now significantly out-of-date.

An example of the message can be read below –

Sorry McDonald`s lovers yucky news!!
I knew there was a reason why I like Jamie Oliver!!
Hamburger chef Jamie Oliver has just won a battle against one of the largest fast food chains in the world. After Oliver showed how McDonald’s hamburgers are made, the franchise announced it will change its recipe.
According to Oliver, the fatty parts of beef are “washed” in ammonium hydroxide and used in the filling of the burger. Before this process, according to the presenter, the food is deemed unfit for human consumption.
According to the chef and presenter, Jamie Oliver, who has undertaken a war against the fast food industry: “Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest way for dogs, and after this process, is being given to human beings.”
Besides the low quality of the meat, the ammonium hydroxide is harmful to health. Oliver calls it “the pink slime process.”
“Why would any sensible human being put meat filled with ammonia in the mouths of their children?” asked the chef, who wages a war against the fast food industry.
In one of his initiatives, Oliver demonstrates to children how nuggets are made. After selecting the best parts of the chicken, the remains (fat, skin and internal organs) are processed for these fried foods.
The company, Arcos Dorados, the franchise manager in Latin America, said such a procedure is not practiced in the region. The same applies to the product in Ireland and the UK, where they use meat from local suppliers.
In the United States, Burger King and Taco Bell had already abandoned the use of ammonia in their products. The food industry uses ammonium hydroxide as an anti-microbial agent in meats, which has allowed McDonald’s to use otherwise “inedible meat.”
Even more disturbing is that because ammonium hydroxide is considered part of the “component in a production procedure” by the USDA, consumers may not know when the chemical is in their food.
On the official website of McDonald’s, the company claims that their meat is cheap because, while serving many people every day, they are able to buy from their suppliers at a lower price, and offer the best quality products.
In addition, the franchise denied that the decision to change the recipe is related to Jamie Oliver’s campaign. On the site, McDonald’s has admitted that they have abandoned the beef filler from its burger patties.

What is true in the message above is that McDonald’s US did previously wash meat trimmings with ammonium hydroxide. It is also true that Jamie Oliver aired an episode of his popular show Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution in 2011 that showed the “pink slime” process in action – an episode that inevitably resulted in calls for McDonald’s to stop using the process.

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While the actual reasons are not known, McDonald’s did eventually stop the process of washing meat in ammonium hydroxide back in 2012. While many can (and have) speculated on the reasons behind the move, McDonald’s were not “forced” to stop – at least from a legal perspective – and there is no evidence to show that Jamie Oliver’s episode about “pink slime” directly influenced their decision.

Despite the claims in these messages about some purported “legal case”, no such case ever existed. McDonalds in the US stopped using this process in 2012, but did so voluntarily.

Of course it is certainly not outside the realms of possibility that the backlash caused by his episode may have had at least some influence on the decision. (It is worth mentioning that McDonald’s UK, where Jamie Oliver is from, has never used the “pink slime” process and that it was McDonald’s US that stopped using it in 2012.)

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Despite the process no longer being used in any McDonald’s since 2012, the above online message has continued to circulate many years since the debacle, falsely implying that this is a recent chain of events. McDonald’s US have now had the following disclaimer on their website for some time now –

Do you use so-called ‘pink slime’ in your burgers or beef treated with ammonia?
Nope. Our beef patties are made from 100% pure beef. Nothing else is added. No fillers, extenders or so-called “pink-slime.”
Some consumers may be familiar with the practice of using lean finely textured beef sometimes treated with ammonia, which is referred to by some as “pink slime.” We do not use this.

Elsewhere in the food industry, the process of using ammonia hydroxide, whilst allowed by the FDA, remains a controversial measure that consistently receives significant public outcry.

However in the context of McDonald’s burgers, this message is substantially out-of-date.