By Jordan Thompson

Staff Writer

Organic eating has really made an impact on American culture recently. Places like Sprouts are popping up everywhere. People are conforming their appetites with Cliff bars and Odwalla. But even though the zero-preservative lifestyle has dispersed throughout the country, not everything is made 100% natural.

‘Pink-slime’ is one of the newest controversies, mainly because it is served on burgers as beef, but it is criticized as being anything but that.

‘Pink slime,’ also known as ‘lean beef trimmings’ is one of the many reasons people are switching to organic meats. It is essentially fat, sinew, bloody effluvia, and bits of meat. Oh, and ammonia. While it resembles a gooey pink slime when processed, it undergoes many artificial changes in order to look and taste like meat.

The compound is used in restaurants like taco bell and even in many schools and grocery stores. But you would not be able to notice it just by looking at it. People have become extremely reluctant to eat it not that it has become more reknown, howveer it has not been linked to health issues yet.

It depends on what kind of person you are; if you care about eating natural than keep an eye out for ‘pink slime’ by checking out the ingredients on the hot dog packages or on a fast food website’s nutritional info. “Mechanically separated” usually implies that pink slime was used to make the product.  But the truth is, (if you are anything like me,) food that tastes good is good enough to eat no matter what!