McDonald's Will No Longer Use 'Pink Slime' in Hamburgers: Great News or Too Little, Too Late?

Score one for the health police. Under pressure to escape its "fake food" image, McDonald's has eliminated the use of ammonium hydroxide -- aka pink slime -- in its hamburger meat. Previously, McDonald's had been soaking scrap meat with ammonium hydroxide -- a pink goo-like ingredient in fertilizers, household cleaners and explosives, according to msnbc.com.


Todd Bacon, McDonald's senior supply chain officer, told The Daily Mail that the decision to change course "was not related to any particular event, but rather to support our effort to align our global beef raw material standards."

But many attribute the change to British celeb chef Jamie Oliver, who began a campaign last year to get ammonium hydroxide-treated meats out of the U.S. food supply, according to the Mail. The use of chemically treated scrap meat "to me as a chef and a food lover is shocking," Oliver said. "... Basically we're taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest form for dogs and making it 'fit' for humans."

The "slime" is regulated by the U.S. Agriculture Department, which classifies it as "generally recognized as safe." But it certainly doesn't look very appetizing. Are you happy about McDonald's decision? Or is it too little, too late for McDonald's to change its faux food ways?