Meat industry defends itself over 'pink slime' controversy - by pointing out that same chemical is also used in cheese

• Caustic cleaning chemical is also used to turn milk to cheese
• Similar chemicals used in chocolate and baked products
• Kraft admits chemical is used in some of its foods

By Rob Waugh

PUBLISHED: 14:26 GMT, 5 April 2012 | UPDATED: 14:28 GMT, 5 April 2012

The controversy over ammonia-treated beef - or what critics dub ‘pink slime’ - broadened this week as it was revealed that the caustic cleaning chemical is also used in cheese.

Related compounds are also used in baked goods and chocolate.

Ammonia, known for its noxious odor, became a hot topic with the uproar over what the meat industry calls ‘finely textured beef’ and what a former U.S. government scientist first called ‘pink slime’.

The meat industry has been trying to raise awareness of other foods that contain ammonia, in response to what it has characterized as an unfair attack on a safe and healthy product.   

For example, ammonia compounds are used as leavening agents in baked goods and as an acidity controller in cheese and sometimes chocolate.    

‘Ammonia's not an unusual product to find added to food,’ Gary Acuff, director of Texas A&M University's Center for Food Safety, told a recent press conference hosted by Beef Products Inc. ‘We use ammonia in all kinds of foods in the food industry.’   

After critics highlighted the product on social media websites and showed unappetizing photos on television, calling it ‘pink slime,’ the nation's leading fast-food chains and supermarkets spurned the product, even though U.S. public health officials deem it safe to eat.

FULL STORY: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2125617/Pink-slime-M...