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"Pink slime, a beef filler sprayed with ammonia, isn't in a McDonald's hamburger patty, but it is likely in pre-packaged ground beef at the grocery store and will soon be on school lunch trays.\nThese findings have triggered an explosion of questions on the Internet about pink slime. The search term was the top Google search Friday, and Bettina Siegel, a Texas blogger, has started an online petition against allowing pink slime in school lunches. \nBut what is pink slime?\nWell, it's the left overs of cattle \u2014 the spare beef trimmings treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill bacteria like E. coli and salmonella. Gerald Zirnstein, a former United States Department of Agriculture scientist, is a whistleblower who has spoken out against pink slime for years \u2014 in fact, he coined the term in 2002 while working for the USDA. \"Pink slime\" is otherwise known as \"lean fine textured beef.\"\nThis week, Zirnstein told ABC News that 70% of ground beef at the supermarket contains pink slime. \n\"It's economic fraud,\" Zirnstein told ABC News in an interview. \"It's not fresh ground beef. It's a cheap substitute being added in.\"\nNot all grocery stores carry beef containing pink slime, according to Beth Krauss, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods. The best way to avoid eating pink slime is to shop at stores that grind the beef in the store. Meat labeled \"USDA Organic\" is also made without the filler.\n\"Whole Foods Market does not sell fresh or frozen meat containing pink slime,\" Krauss said. \"The majority of our ground beef is ground in our stores, from whole muscle meat.\"\nFast food chains like McDonald's don't use pink slime, either. McDonald's announced last month it would stop selling burgers containing the material.\nDespite protest against pink slime, the USDA says the additive is safe to eat. In the coming months, the USDA has plans to buy 7 million pounds of ground beef containing pink slime for the national school lunch program, according to The Daily.\nJ. Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute, a meat trade organization, backed up the USDA' claims and said \"boneless lean beef trimmings (BLBT) are a safe, wholesome and nutritious form of beef that's made by separating lean beef from fat.\" \nShould the USDA allow pink slime to be added to ground beef? Tell us in the comments below. \nImage courtesy of iStock, Lebazele."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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