Are burgers made of grease paste and ammonia?

And again a status post is making the rounds on Facebook that has the topic “McDonalds” and “Processes” as well as “Jamie Oliver”. The title:

McDonalds loses lawsuit: “Meat” in burgers consists of fat paste around ammonia

On the website the user gets to read:

“Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has won a spectacular court case against McDonald's, proving that the fast food chain uses fat and ammonia instead of meat. This is not food. The chef opened up about the shocking truth about what really goes into the "tasty" hamburgers and nuggets. According to Jamie, what McDonald’s serves cannot be considered food.”

First of all! We didn't even have the topic on the table in our editorial team. Different sides keep trying to address this topic.

This is not a current story , but rather a fact from the USA that dates back to 2011 and 2012 . Jamie Oliver actually denounced these events and as a result the use of “Pink Slime” was significantly restricted.

A quick note: the representation as “fat and ammonia” is not correct . It is ammonium hydroxide , which is added as an antimicrobial agent to kill coli bacteria, for example, and is known in this country as E527.

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It is actually the case that Oliver revealed in his show “Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution” what ends up in the US burgers from fast food chains: among other things, he complained that inferior beef, which is otherwise found in dog food, is being used again with the help of ammonium hydroxide is made edible. The product, which he originally called “Pink Slime”, was officially legal in the USA at that time. The end product could be stretched with up to 15% of this inferior mass.

In the episode of “Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution” that aired on April 12, 2011, Oliver said:

Basically, we're taking a product that would be sold at the cheapest form for dogs and after this process we can give it to humans

So he blames the fact that this cheap form of meat, which is actually only sold for dogs, is processed here and prepared for people. As it turned out, Burger King and Taco Bell also worked this way in the US - completely legal at the time, mind you.

At this time

The current Facebook sources don't mention one thing at all: things are old! Really! For example, the :

Victory for Jamie Oliver in the US as McDonald's is forced to stop using 'pink slime' in its burger recipe

So the entire headline is from the end of January 2012.

(Screenshot: Ibitimes )

(Screenshot: CBS )

You can also learn from the DailyMail article that the criticized “Pink Slime” was used in the USA. There was no use of “pink slime”, i.e. the processed meat, in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

There is also no evidence of use in Germany or Austria. The reason why this topic could now end up in the interest of users again is the free trade agreement TTIP and the fears that such practices will end up in Central Europe through gag agreements.

So let’s conclude

This is not a current story, but rather a fact from the USA dating back to 2011 and 2012. Jamie Oliver actually denounced these events and as a result the use of “Pink Slime” was significantly restricted.

There are now a lot of foreign language sources on this topic, at this point we would like to mention a detailed German language article as further information:
AMMONIUM HYDROXIDE Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver wins long battle against McDonalds