What Kinds of Meat Do Fast-Food Places Use in Their Burgers? | Healthy Eating | SF Gate
"bb-b-b-but it tastes good" derp
The exact ingredients in a fast-food burger are almost impossible to know because restaurants aren't required to reveal this information. Even if a burger is labeled "all beef," it may contain fillers, chemicals and binders that add flavor and texture.
Multiple Animals
Before the globalization of the fast-food market, hamburger was sourced from local farms and may have come from just one or two cows. Now, the ground beef is churned out in factories and consists of meat from hundreds of animals from multiple locations, Eric Schlosser, author of "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal," explained in a 2002 interview with CBS News. This process increases the risk of widespread foodborne illness because one tainted cow may affect hundreds or thousands of burgers.
The Meat Is Beef
Allegations of the presence of horse meat in burgers plagued Burger King's European stores in 2013. A supplier in Ireland was found to be mixing horse into its ground beef, but DNA tests determined that Burger King's products were not tainted. Fast-food restaurants, including Burger King, tenaciously claim the meat in their burgers is beef. How much of any fast-food burger actually consists of meat, though, is unclear, Kantha Shelke, a scientist for a Chicago-based food science and nutrition research firm, told ABC News in 2011. Grain and cereal binders are usually combined with the meat to add bulk, texture and flavor. The amount of binder used depends on each particular company and is not information that fast-food establishments are required to release to the public.
Would You Like Some Ammonia With That?
Up to 12 percent of fast-food burgers may consist of ammoniated beef product -- scraps and trimmings left over from slaughter, food safety lawyer Bill Marler told ABC News in 2011. These scraps used to be reserved only for pet food, but they are now treated with ammonium hydroxide, which supposedly kills E. coli and salmonella -- and thus the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers the scraps safe for human consumption. The amount of ammoniated beef product used in fast-food burgers has decreased in recent years, though. Prior to 2012, approximately 70 percent of the ground beef in commercial settings -- including fast-food restaurants, school lunch programs and grocery stores -- contained the product. Following social media uproar, only about 5 percent of beef products now contain it, reported "Time" magazine in 2013.
Beef Grades
Meat is not automatically graded by meat inspectors, but it is assigned a passing or failing grade in terms of fitness for human consumption. Only if a producer asks will a U.S. Department of Agriculture official assign a grade to beef. Certain grades warrant a higher price tag and have greater marketability, so meat producers might benefit from requesting a grading in certain cases. USDA Prime, Choice, Select and Standard grades are available, with Prime usually going to upscale establishments, not your local fast-food restaurant. Choice is the most widely sold commercially, according to Snopes.com, and the lower grades of beef, known as USDA Utility, Cutter and Canner, are mostly incorporated into hot dogs and ground beef -- so these grades might be showing up in your fast-food burgers.
