Where Is The Beef?

In the mid-1980’s a fast food restaurant (the one who used a little girl’s image) launched an advertising campaign using the slogan- “where’s the beef?” This ad was used to call out other fast food restaurants on their practice of using filler in the beef of their burgers.  The restaurant was struggling, and the ad campaign helped them gain market presence.

Why do I bring this story up?  Recently, I have noticed that every package of ground beef that I purchase has a large amount of gristle in it.  Even the beef purchased from a higher-priced, regional supermarket and not just the discounter with smiling faces has gristle in it.  It is very evident as you cannot chew this ground beef to the point of it dissolving and being able to swallow and digest it.

I have noticed this happening for about a year now, seems like it is getting to be more prevalent in every cut of ground beef in our market.  I guess as the economy worsens, the quality of products such as ground beef is being compromised in favor of better earnings per lb.  Stores must be using fillers to increase the earnings per package of burger.

To try and find an answer to this aggravating situation I turned to the www.  Little information exists regarding the use of gristle in the processing of hamburgers, however, there are sights that talk about “fillers” being used.  Fillers such as fat or a lesser quality cut of beef can be used.  On one site it simply referred to “fillers” as “additives” to build the volume of the burger.

So, what are these other “additives “or “fillers”—fat, skin, horns, hooves or maybe testicles? Supposedly, the USDA monitors these “fillers” closely and have very strict standards regarding them.  And, as we all know; you can completely trust your government to monitor everything—right?  Surely this is on the up-and-up and we customers are not being screwed again—right?

I put this to the test by going to a local hamburger stand and ordering a quarter pound burger (this stand has fantastic burgers), there was not one little piece of gristle anywhere in this quality burger.  I asked the owner of the stand where they get the ground beef used in their hamburgers.  She told me that they get their ground beef from a regional butcher wholesale store.  She indicated to me that they would never buy ground beef from processing plants that supply large stores because of the quality.

So once again, we the customer get screwed with inferior products from large companies who care more about profits than about customer satisfaction.  So now I must pay as much as 50% more for my ground beef from a local butcher, however, the quality of the meat is good.  If this trend continues in this age of the ever-shrinking wage and dollar I will be forced to become a vegetarian——holy crap!

Talk to Ya Later

The Grumpy Old Fart Customer @2018 All Rights Reserved