photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Fresh tomatoes, melting cheese, crunchy onions, crisp lettuce, warm hamburger bun and a juicy patty of…pink slime?

While it may sound completely inedible, the product known as “pink slime” it is actually made by:

“grinding together beef scraps and connective tissue. [Beef Products, Inc.] then uses a mixture of ammonia and water (ammonium hydroxide) to prevent the risk for E. coli or salmonella contamination.”

British celeb chef Jamie Oliver publicly declared:

“Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold at the cheapest form for gods and after this process, we can give it to humans.”

On the other hand, H. Russell Cross (head of the department of animal science at Texas A&M University) stated:

“Finely textured lean beef helps us meet consumer demand for safe, affordable and nutritious food.”

How “nutritious” can this product be if it’s treated with ammonium hydroxide, which is… also used in bombs and cleaning materials?

Major fast food chains such as McDonalds and Taco Bell have already stopped their use of this product due to public demand.

However, the USDA plans to buy 7 million pounds of “pink slime” (also known as Lean Beef Trimmings) from BPI in the coming months for the national school lunch program.In a public statement, they defended their actions by stating that all of its ground beef purchases “meet the highest standard for food safety.”

Feel strongly against it? Here’s the online petition that denounces the USDA’s use of “pink slime” for lunch programs.