Monday, April 2, 2012

What's on the Menu?

I read this article about a school food service that has a "burger" that has 26 ingredients in it!  While this is concerning it does raise a question that students, parents and the schools should probably discuss.  Is it okay for schools to offer these chemically changed foodstuffs if they are safe?  Would it be better (as suggested in the article) that schools pay to have chefs "scratch make" foods for lunches?  Isn't it the parents responsibility to feed their children and if so, shouldn't they just pack lunches if they don't like things like 26 ingredient burgers or reprocessed cheese sandwiches.  Read the article and tell us what you think.

115 comments:

Jessica T. said...

The food that they have is not very good they should. Have special scientist to test these foods or else someone might complain and sew the place. This is important becuase no one wants to eat pink slime or any thing else that might be harmfull to our bodies.

Simeong said...

I don't think they would give us food that would harm our body they do put chemicals in our fruit to make it grow healthy. Although they should change the way they clean and make meat.

Anonymous said...

I believe that it is not okay for schools to offer these chemically changed food because after finding out about the "pink slime" thing in burger meat, this is just going to make the whole problem much worse. When I saw all of the unneeded ingredients in the burgers, I sometimes wonder how they get away with crap like this. They need to fix this now or else the government will end up being sued.

AVgleek17 said...

I feel like if the schools decide to give us all of this crazy stuff in our lunches, at least tell us about it! Keeping it a secret might be a good idea at first, but when the word gets out, it will become much more problematic than it would be. I know for a fact that if my mom heard the school was keeping ingredients in my lunch like that and not telling her, world war 3 would break out in the school. So if the lunch people decide to be disgusting, do it. But letting the public know is a much better choice. And when the public does know and nobody buys the lunches, hopefully the schools will know it's time to change their master recipes.

AVgleek17 said...

@ AnCh373,
I agree with you that the lunches are disgusting, but I don't think it could change as easily as you think it would be able to. I also feel like they should change, but it would take time. I feel like since the pink slime and now this has been buzzing around, it might speed up the process, but then again it would still be a while until the burgers, or any other nasty foods might change. And when you talk about getting away with crap like this, when you think about it, they actually are doing themselves a good thing, it just results on us negatively. So I don't think it's necessarily "crap" that the schools are getting away with, just spending their money wisely without caring about health. But I definitely agree with you that something needs to change.

Anonymous said...

@AVgleek17
I agree with your statement because if we don't really know about it it would be fine until everybody finds out about it. Once people find out about things that have been hidden from us, we start to become worried about what we are really eating in our school lunches. Everyday from now on, I am stopping getting the cheeseburgers in the cafeteria because of the 'pink slime' and now also because of the extra ingredientes added that are very unnecessary. Therefore, burgers should only be one ingredient, ground beef.

No. said...

I think that each ingredient is actually necessary. I think this because every time the lady asked the chef what each ingredient was supposed to do, she always had a logical answer.

meow said...

@no.
I agree with you because the food expert was not frightened by the chemicals. No said, "I think this because every time the lady asked the chef what each ingredient was supposed to do, she always had a logical answer." I agree with no because it is logical.

Language Arts Student said...

I think that using over 26 ingredients on your school burger is not a good idea nor that it's healthily. I believe that these kinds of school foods should only have three or less ingredients and they should all natural lean beef, some added spices for some flavor but that should be it, no soy and blue powders like in the video. The things that were added into that burger in the video you do anything even pronounce. I think that these school lunches the 26 ingredient burgers fueled by low prices and not many people wanting to pay a higher price for better lunch in our cafeteria you pay three dollars and if it was more many people would be mad. I think that the government should go and control the different ingredients and different things that people serving other people because it's not healthy and it could harm you in the long run it's on in the short run. Therefore that is why I think that the government and/or some type of organizations should stop schools for making these weird burgers, but also I think that this school should do their part in the burgers with only three ingredients lean beef, some spices and some other added flavor because that is the healthiest you can kind of get.

Language Arts Student said...

@AnCh373
I agree with you and I think that the government and or the organizations that are out there that help the American public from bad foods should step in and show the effect of this and throw some random lawsuits out there so the companies that make these “burgers” will see that this isn’t a joke. I think that these companies are not taking all of this seriously and not trying to fix this but instead tring to wait this situation out and hoping for the best that a new bigger and better topic will come up in the news. I think that when a new nigger topic will come along the companies with keep quite and try to make sure everyone forgets about this Pink slime stuff. Our country has a lot of people, companies and organizations that relied on this situation because if they don’t it can cost them a ton of failed lawsuits and a lot of customers to walk a way from them so really if they don’t stop then they will end up bankrupting because of all the lost customers. Therefore that is why I think that companies should stop this pink slime production or any thing like that know because they can risk a lot of lost customers ending them up in bankruptcy.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, I do not care what people put in the kids foods as long as it does not hurt the kid. Having to feed hundreds of kids a day can be difficult to prepare food from scratch and the food has to last a while for the next lunch waves so there needs to be ingredients in the food to prevent it from spoiling. For example, "pre-prepared foods made by manufacturers are healthful and help limit the risks of food-borne illness, since they prevent the chance of cross-contamination that comes with handling raw meat. 'That product that comes from a manufacturer, it's gone through lab analysis and safety checks' " This example from the article shows that eating this food is not a risk to the kids' health. Its something to eat so why complain?

Peter P said...

I think that having these 26 ingredients in the cheeseburgers is not a good idea because you don't know if you are allergic or its dangerous to eat. I think that the chefs should make regular burgers that are made with beef and cheese and cooked on a grill. Even though some of the vitamins are healthy, their flavor is just covered up by the caramel color which shouldn't even belong in a real burger. That's why I believe that these burgers are not a good food to be eating.

Peter P said...

@Anonymous
I disagree with you because kids' health is more important than finishing the food quickly. I know that I would rather have my food cooked freshly with regular burger ingredients, instead of getting sick with fast-food-like burgers. You said that it's something to eat, but how about that it would be much more satisfying to eat food you know is good and not made with several ingredients. That's why I think these burgers should be made regularly.

G-MAN said...

It is perfectly okay for schols to have 26 ingredient burgers because they are good for kids. In the burger there are about 20 or more ingredients that are vitamins and minerals. Other than that it is flavoring, coloring, water, and beef. These burgers are good for kids that do not get all of the vitamins and minerals that are needed. If people do not like lunches they should not have their kids eat them. I found from a listserv email that school beef does have pink slime so my mom told me not to eat beef from school. That is all parents need to do if they don't like the food don't have your kids eat it. Making food at school is way to difficult, it will take longer time and may become more expensive. There is a greater chance of infected food. To have cooks come will be too expensive for people buying lunches. Therefore it is in our interest to have 26 ingredient burgers because the food will stay safe, it has vitamins and minerals that kids need, and it is cheap.

G-MAN said...

@Anonymous I totally agree with you that as long as 26 ingredient burgers do not hurt kids they are perfectly okay to use. I believe so for the same reasons, one it takes too long for a chef to cook food for kids. Everyday at lunch I wait ten minutes to get my food, imagine what would happen if they had to cook the food thenselves, for over 1600 kids! The lines would be unbearable and uit would be expensive to hire a chef and buuy fresh beef everyday to cook. Secondly, these big manufacturing facillities are safe and extremely regulated whereas it is very easy for the food at Masuk to become infected. If the food is safe and it is b=good for you with extra protein, vitamins, and minerals what's the complaint? There is no need to make a fuss about this meat, it's not pink slime! Therefore, since the food doesn't hurt kids and keeps them safe from potential illness, as well as fortifies them with vitamins and minerals then we should embrace vitamins and minerals.

Hash_slinging_slasher said...

I think that they should hire chefs to make kids food instead of having people cook the food, they are just being lazy, cheap and make horrible food for our health.
Another thing is that the foods that are being made at Masuk high school are just plain terrible. They are bland and have little to no taste at all. Most kids agree that the food at Masuk is horrible and no one likes the flavor of the food. Most of the times the fries are under cooked and are cold. Even the chips are bad. If we buy a bag of lays chips, we are just getting ripped off. There is between 4 and 5 chips per bag. What is the point of getting chips if you are getting 4 to 5 chips.

Jessica T. said...

@ Simion I agree with you the food is not very good at all and it can harm us all I know this because in the past few comments ago Mr. Horvath posted a comment on pink slime. i remember the video that i watched and it was really disturbing. this is important because we don't need the food that can harm us all we deserve better especially

marktex5025 said...

I agree with the article that if I don't know what's in what I eat, then I won't eat it. This is because it's not safe. For example, when I was younger, my mom would often feed us baby carrots. But 1 or 2 years ago, we found out that people processing these carrots add chemicals to make the shape and color better, so it was not very healthy to eat this. Therefore, I am now cautious about what I eat, like Ryan Lonnett (man from article), and now that I know that I don't know what the ingredients are in school burgers, you will not find me eating one anytime soon, even if it means I must pack my own lunch everday.

marktex5025 said...

@Hash_slinging_slasher
I agree that schools should pay more money to hire chefs that make food from scratch because our health is important, so we can't just hire people who are lazy and make food out of boxes and chemicals. I'm pretty sure we've all heard of food poisoning. It is not fun to be living with, and according to what they put in school lunches, food poisoning could probably result in eating these meals. We should hire good chefs, that care about our health, make our school lunch (if we choose to buy) because we deserve to be healthy, and I'm pretty sure that what they put into our food is the opposite of healthy. Therefore, we should hire people who are willing to take their time to prepare food for us that can be eaten, even if it costs more money, because our health matters, and we do not want to put our health at risk because of a bad school lunch.

Emerson18 said...

I think the burger is not healthy. This is because it has 26 ingredients. Many of the ingredients are things most people have never heard of, such as thiamine mononitrate, disodium inosinate, and pyridoxine hydrochloride. Ryan Lonnett says, "Since I don't know what it is, I'd rather not put it in my body." I agree with him 100 percent. Therefore, since a burger has 26 strange ingredients, it is most likely bad for your health.

Emerson18 said...

@ G MAN I agree with you that if a burger has 26 ingredients in it, it may be fine. However, those ingredients would have to be healthy ingredients. If they were just vitamins, minerals, beef, and water and things like that it would be fine, but have you ever heard of thiamine mononitrate, disodium inosinate, or pyridoxine hydrochloride? These ingredients do not seem healthy to me. Therefore, if a burger has 26 healthy ingredients it is fine, but since the ingredients are most likely unhealthy, it is bad for your health.

Simeong said...

What really surprised me about the video is that in the 26 ingrediants is two substances called Copper Gluconate, Riboflavin ,and Cyanocobalamin together these materials are used to make a medicine and that medicine is the hard flintstone vitamins. Copper Gluconate is a micronutreant, whatever that is. This really surprises me I wonder if this is why burgers make you slow when you try and work-out.

Ali M. said...

Well one thing I understand is how hard it is for the lunch ladies to make that much food. That is why I have never bought lunch in my entire life. If you do not like the food they are serving then pack your child the lunch. Some parents do not like that "red flag" ingredient, so you change instead of forcing someone else to change. Packing lunch is also healthier and tastes better. So if you feel that you do not like the food your child is being served, then pack them lunch. Instead of complaining do something about it.

Ali m. said...

I also agree that the less in something the better. My parents always tell me, the less processed the better for you. For example, when my grandma couldn't eat a lot of unhealthy things the doctor told her, if she HAD to eat something sweat, make it homemade, because store-bought has much to many chemicals that are even worse for you. So the purer the food is, the better it will be for you. That is why we should not just keep cramming random chemicals into our food, that we thin will help.

Marissa S. said...

More then half the ingredients in a simple hamburger people can't pronounce and are unnatural. If you don't know what is going into your food then why should you eat it. Not only the things served in schools have mysterious ingredients, many of the meats in the frozen isle have the same ingredients. The "Morning Star" burgers found in the frozen isle contain the same ingredients as the school burgers in the schools. It is not healthy to eat things that we can't pronounce or know what they are. It is not setting a good example when our parents let us buy food that they have no clue what is in it.

Marissa S. said...

@marktex5025 I agree with you if i don't what is in the food that I eat I won't eat. In the article it explains how there are 16 ingredients in a hamburger. I don't what most of those ingredients are so why should I eat it. There are many unnecessary ingredients that should not be in them, so once they take those out I will eat them.

WOOLEYWAM said...

First of all, I think that it is disgusting for schools to be serving 26 ingredient hamburgers. The parents pay for their children to eat a nice lunch, not some chemically produced so-call meat. I do think that the schools should get chefs to make the food from scratch because it is safer and more appetizing. If this cost more money, then I still think the parents are willing to pay because it is much better than buying gross hamburgers. Furthermore, sure it is the parents’ responsibilities for their child’s lunches, but if they’d rather want their kids to buy lunch then that’s okay, as long as they don’t eat 26 ingredient hamburgers.

WOOLEYWAM said...

I agree with you @Emerson18 because I also don’t think that burger is healthy and would never eat it. I honestly don’t understand the reasoning behind why they can’t just serve real meat for lunch instead of 26 ingredient hamburgers. I also agree when you said that you’d never eat something that includes ingredients you’ve never heard of. Therefore, I agree that these kinds of hamburgers being served for lunch are a bad idea.

Unknown 7 said...

I don't think that school lunches should have that many unknown ingredients. If they are going to have those in the lunches, they should tell the students about it. "Since I don't know what it is, I'd rather not put it in my body," Lonnett says. Many people can have the same reaction. Parents might make their children stop eating school lunches because of this. It would be better if the school told everyone about the secret ingredients other than getting everyone worried when they find out themselves. That way, parents and kids can make the decisions of buying school lunches or bringing their own. Then they won't be worried of the unknown ingredients.

YouJustGotCerved said...

I don't think that school burgers should have 26 ingredients. They should either remove the option of a burger from the menu or alter the recipe. This is because a school burger has many "fake" ingredients that compensate for a few real ingredients. "Fake" ingredients may harm the body, especially when used used on a young body. This is why I think that there shouldn't be "fake" ingredients in a school burger.

YouJustGotCerved said...

@Unknown 7
I agree that the school should tell us about the mystery ingredients in school lunches. THis is because it would be better so we could make the healthy decision and not find out later in life. This is why I agree with you.

Unknown 7 said...

@Emerson18
I agree with you that the burger doesn't seem healthy. It does have 26 ingredients that do not seem like they are needed. They also have names that people have never heard of. But 11 of those ingredients were vitamins and mineral. The other ones were water, beef, and salt. The salt was to help get rid of the taste of the vitamins. Yeast also helps does this and so does soy and sugars. The only problems are natural flavoring and disodium inosinate. But some chefs say it's fine. So school lunches shouldn't have that many unknown ingredients because it makes them seem unhealthy. But all in all, they are healthy for you.

Grace S. said...

I definitely don't think that schools should be selling hamburgers with 26 ingredients in them. Students' parents are giving them money to buy this food, so they probably expect their child to be eating a nice, healthy lunch every day. If they found out what really is in these hamburgers, they probably would not let their child buy cafeteria lunch food anymore. Also, some of the ingredients that are put into the burgers are "unknown". Would you really want to eat something from your school cafeteria, when you don't even know half of the things it is made up of? Right away, I know that I wouldn't. Moreover, serving food like this is unhealthy, un-appetizing, and maybe even not safe. These hamburgers should not be served at all in school cafeterias.

Grace S. said...

@Unknown 7,
You said that you don't think that school lunches should have that many unknown ingredients. I agree with this. Kids are not going to want to eat food when they are unsure about what is in it. You also said, "It would be better if the school told everyone about the secret ingredients other than getting everyone worried when they find out themselves. That way, parents and kids can make the decisions of buying school lunches or bringing their own." I think that school cafeterias should definitely do this. Telling the kids what is inside their food so they can decide whether they want to eat it or not makes much better sense than just not telling them at all. Therefore, if school cafeterias did this, it would be easier and better for students to choose.

ZAMZAM said...

I think that using these 26 ingredients in school burgers is not a good idea because it's unhealthy. I believe that school lunches should only have natural ingredients included in them because they are being served to children, and even take away that fact, but they are being served to human beings in general. This should definitely raise a question for students and parents. It is unhealthy.

ZAMZAM said...

@Jessica T. I agree that the food that they have is not very good, and they should have special scientist test these foods. This is important and could be effective because no one wants to eat any substances that might be harmful to our bodies. Having a scientist investigate would solve this problem.

Matt w. said...

I think that it is o.k. for schools to serve their students with the highly processed foods, such as the 26-ingrediant hamburger. The cost is much, much cheaper, and the food made from scratch costs more for two reasons 1. more supplies are needed 2. more workers are needed to prepare the foods. The last thing that our town can do is spend more money. The foods might be heavily processed. but at least they aren't giving you food poisoning and other food related illnesses.

Matt W. said...

@ Grace S. You said that our parents are paying for the lunch food but every parent also has the option to send their kids to school with a packed lunch, where they can pick and chose what foods their children are eating.

Lauren said...

I don't think that kids should be eating a burger with 26 ingredients in it. First off almost half of the ingredients I can't even pronounce or know what they are. Also, I think that school lunches should have less processed food and more fresh. Even though the cost of lunch may go up, hiring a chef to make fresh meals each day would benefit the kids who are eating it. If the school doesn't want to hire a chef, then you could pack a lunch from home. If you brought lunch from home, then you know what you’re eating. Therefore, a burger with 26 ingredients isn't healthy and shouldn't be severed.

Lauren said...

@MattW I disagree with you because I don't think that highly processed foods, like the 26 ingredient burger is healthy. Also even though it may cost less, kids may be getting sick from eating it. Therefore, less processed foods should be served at schools.

Michelle R. said...

I think that the burger with 26 ingredients isn't the best option for schools but is an option. These burgers are certified. McConnell says, "That product comes from a manufacturer, it's gone through lab analysis and safety checks. I know it's safe." These burgers are perfectly healthy and in fact "help limit the risks of food-borne-illness, since they prevent the chance of cross-contamination that comes with handling raw meat." Also of the 26 ingredients none of them are that unsettling. For example the burgers don't have cow intestines, chicken fluid, or something outrageous. All of the ingredients are used for cooking and safe. Therefore these burgers are safe and an option for poor schools because they don't require the kitchen items, space and work that is involved to cook from scratch.

Michelle R. said...

@Anonymous
I agree that people shouldn't care what is put into school lunches. The ingredients are both edible and safe. Who cares if there is 26 ingredients? It is your own decision if you want to buy schools lunches are not. You shouldn't care if you don't eat it anyway. Why would you need to get mad when the "26 ingredient" burger won't harm kids that eat it? If you don't eat the burger there is no need for a riot because the kids that DO eat it don't have a problem with it. Therefore it is not your problem so don't worry about it.

Pandanut12 said...

I think that if we are not interested in money issues, made-from-scratch lunches are the healthiest choice because lots of things are in lunches that are extra things that aren't necessary. For example, there are a lot of chemical compounds that are in school lunches, such as copper gluconate. Before school lunches, no kid was dying of lack of copper gluconate, were they? They can get copper in lots of other things, so the chemical is unnecesary. In fact, ALL of the other long names in the ingredients were vitamins and minerals that share the same story, which proves that unnecesary compounds are getting fed into us via school lunches every day.

Pandanut12 said...

@Lauren
I agree with you because kids can get sick from the processed meat. A couple of years ago there was an incident with a food chain called "Jack In The Box", where they're burgers were highly processed and got tainted with some kind of contaminent. Those who ate the exceptionally rare meat (none of the burgers were cooked well) got salmonella. Our meat at school is highly processed too, and we've all goten our burgers with pink on the inside. This means that our school lunches have the possibility of making us sick.

!DANCE! said...

I think that it is very wrong for people to serve children this food. I think this becasue it is definatly not healthy for the child. With that many ingredience in the food that you dont even know how to say, how do you know that you can trust it? Back then, the lunch ladies would acually make the food for children by hand. I feel like they should still be doing that no matter how long it will take or how hard it is becasue it is their job and they should care about what is in the food children are eating. Sometimes parents work from morning to night then once again from morning to night and do not have the time to make food for their children. Also, when the children are young they do not know how to make their own lunch or snack. It is not just this California school with the processed and unhealthy food, our school also is going through having this food! I am pretty sure that the meat that the people give us also have the different ingredience that are unpornounceable. That is why I do not think that it is right for people to be giving children this food at school

!DANCE! said...

I think that it is very wrong for people to serve children this food. I think this becasue it is definatly not healthy for the child. With that many ingredience in the food that you dont even know how to say, how do you know that you can trust it? Back then, the lunch ladies would acually make the food for children by hand. I feel like they should still be doing that no matter how long it will take or how hard it is becasue it is their job and they should care about what is in the food children are eating. Sometimes parents work from morning to night then once again from morning to night and do not have the time to make food for their children. Also, when the children are young they do not know how to make their own lunch or snack. It is not just this California school with the processed and unhealthy food, our school also is going through having this food! I am pretty sure that the meat that the people give us also have the different ingredience that are unpornounceable. That is why I do not think that it is right for people to be giving children this food at school

!DANCE! said...

@ Matt w.
I do not agree wiht you when you said that it is ok for them to give it to us because they are not giving us food poisoning or any other food related illnesses. Well, the food that they are giving us is pretty much poion because of how un healthy it is. That is why i dissagree with you when you said that it is ok to serve the food because they are not giving us food poisoning or any other food related sicknesses.

chris G said...

i think it is not good to have 26 different ingrediants in a burger at school becasue it is not healthy for you. it may have some ingrediants so it isnt 100% junk but it is not good for you at all. I say this becasue if you buy hamburger meat at the store and make homade hamburgers it tastes and is better for you because it is actuall meat. Also the pink slime thing that is going around so alot if not all of those 26 ingrediants are going in to the pink slime makeng the schools hamburgers. This is why i think it is not good for a school hamburger to have 26 ingrediants in it.

chris G said...

i think it is not good to have 26 different ingrediants in a burger at school becasue it is not healthy for you. it may have some ingrediants so it isnt 100% junk but it is not good for you at all. I say this becasue if you buy hamburger meat at the store and make homade hamburgers it tastes and is better for you because it is actuall meat. Also the pink slime thing that is going around so alot if not all of those 26 ingrediants are going in to the pink slime makeng the schools hamburgers. This is why i think it is not good for a school hamburger to have 26 ingrediants in it.

Chris G said...

i agree with Matt W because they will need more workers and it will be cheapers but those are the exact same thing if it cost alot then you will need more money to pay more worker. that is why i agree with Matt W

Kate O. said...

I think that it is very bad to have 26 different ingredients in a burger, because this could be very harmful to our bodies. As they said in the video, many of these ingredients such as, Thiamine mononitrate, are very hard to pronounce which makes it even more harmful, and unhealthy for us. I would much rather it a healthy hamburger, than one with 'pink slime' in it, and I think that statement goes with everyone. As you can see, I think that changing the schools burgers, would really make a difference in many students lives.

Kate O. said...

@chris G. I agree with you because I also think that 26 ingredients in a hamburger is very unhealthy for us. It has way to many ingredients to be an actual burger. I also agree that burgers you buy at a store do taste much better then the ones we get at school. I think they definatly taste better, because of the fresh ingredients that the stores get. The school uses fake meat, which is MUCH, MUCH different then what local supermarkets use in their meat. As you can see this is why I agree with Chris G.

RyanT. said...

I couldn't care less about what is in the school burgers. This is because I eat them all the time and they haven't done anything to me. Even though chef's would be nice, the food that they give us is perfectly fine. Well they could cook the tater-tots a bit more. If these burgers have 26 ingredients in them, and I know that that is a lot of ingredients for a burger, it can't be that bad. Nobody has gotten sick that I know of from the burgers. We shouldn't make a big fuss about this. That is why I am perfectly fine with what they put in the burgers today.

RyanT. said...

@No.

I agree. This is because every time that this lady asked the chef what each of the ingredients in the burgers did, they always had a logical answer. Therefore each ingredient would be necessary. That is why I agree with you No..

Cav98 said...

I think that the 26 ingredient burger is OK to use. I think this because in the over view of the ingredients in the video it said that a lot of the extra ingredient were vitamins. Who care if there usually ingredient for a burger they seem to be making it heather. Also these ingredients keep the processed burgers from spoiling. If there going to use processed meat meat id rather it be normal rather than spoiled.

Cav98 said...

I agree with Jessica T because i also think that scientist should test this meat. If the scientist cant find any thing harmful then there cant be about it heath value. Also the test would make kids feel safer eating the meat. Lastly if the test results did come out bad the meat could be ruled as unhealthy to eat and therefore illegal to sell. This would make school lunches much safer for everyone.

StephanieZ said...

I believe that it is completely "ok" to use the 26 ingredient burger. If you think about it, the things that we eat everyday have MUCH more than 26 ingredients in them. Besides, a lot of the 26 are just added vitamins. If the parents don't like it anyways, then it's their responsibily to pack the kid's their own personal lunches. I think that the food that we have now is fine, and if anyone has a problem with it, they should deal with it themselves. That is why I think that the 26 ingredient burgers are ok.

bieberlover10 said...

After reading the article about the 26 ingrediant meal, I think this is not ok. This is because this can be very unhealthy to the young children. Also, it sould be gone sooner than later. This is why I disagree with the 26 ingrediant meal.

bieberlover10 said...

@marktex5025..
I agree with you. This is because you never know what can be put into food and beverages when they are made for you publicly. This is because from the article there are 26 ingredients, which can be unhealthy to those that eat the meals. This is why I agree with you, marktex5025.

JMM126 said...

I am quite concerned with all the ingredients in the processed burgers for school because, they said in the video that they usually name the harmful ingredients long and hard to pronounce so nobody will bother to research it or even finish reading it. Therefore, I am concerned about the 26 ingredients in these lunch burgers because the longer, harder to pronounce names are usually the most harmful and if there is about 20 of them, how much more harmful can the burger be?

JMM126 said...

@KateO
I agree with you because they said in the video as in your evidence that the longer, harder to pronounce names of ''ingredients'' are usually the most harmful to humans. And since there are about 20 or more of these. How much can they hurt the human organs, or the digestive system? Therefore, I agree with you because as they said in the video the harmful ingredients often have the long names so people dont remember or think about it. And it can be very harmful to the human body.

Isabelle G. said...

I think the real reason all these additional ingredients are put in are fo nutritional value. As the video said it is like they are smooching a flinstone vitamin into a burger. If you are eating healthily and frequently this is not needed. On the other hand thought these vitamins can be benificial to kids who don't get the luxury of eating three meals everyday. The school is required to give prepaid meals to kids on finacial support and those kids need the vitamins they put in these burgers. The kids don't need these vitamins presumably can afford to bring lunch. This is why they put all this "crap" in the burgers. It is because it is beneficial in some cases. If parents don't like it they can send their kid to school with a packaged lunch. Simple as that.

Isabelle G. said...

@Language Arts Student
I have to disagree with you. You say that all these ingredients are unnessacary and just cheap but wouldn't they just be cheaper not to pay for them and put them in. If you think about it they are actually paying to put these things in so underprivileged kids can get a substantial meal. It may not necessarily good for someone who is eating three nutritional meals a day, but the school has to assume those kids can afford to bring lunch. The kids who don't get this luxury needs the vitamins. So the school isn't putting these things into the burgers just because it is cheap crap. They are putting these things in it because it is nutritional and healthy for the kids that can't afford three meals a day.

Isabelle G. said...

@Language Arts Student
I have to disagree with you. You say that all these ingredients are unnessacary and just cheap but wouldn't they just be cheaper not to pay for them and put them in. If you think about it they are actually paying to put these things in so underprivileged kids can get a substantial meal. It may not necessarily good for someone who is eating three nutritional meals a day, but the school has to assume those kids can afford to bring lunch. The kids who don't get this luxury needs the vitamins. So the school isn't putting these things into the burgers just because it is cheap crap. They are putting these things in it because it is nutritional and healthy for the kids that can't afford three meals a day.

panthers502 said...

I agree with the Hash-Slinging_Slasher. I think that the chefs should make kids their own food. It's better because it's more healthy and petter in dfat and the other health things that people and kids need. Also, this is important because we need to make the right decision for our kids.

panthers502 said...

I feel that these 26 ingrident burgers are awful for our health. We don't even know what is specificly in our foods. It's important that we figure this out because we need to know for helath issus. It's imporant and I am holding off on the hot lunch burgers FOREVER! That is why I think that we should hold off on the burgers until we know what is in them, and how it's affecting us.

KirillR98 said...

I do not think it's okay to offer these chemically changed hamburgers. I know that they have all these vitamins and good things but after I read that scientists put in a caramel coloring into the burgers so it looks like its cooked, I won't have anything that isn't fully cooked. It would be better if schools had chefs that cook things from scratch because then all foods will be fully cooked and will actually taste like real food. Even though the 26 ingredient burger is supposed to be healthy, there are some ingredients that I don't want in my body.

KirillR98 said...

@Anonymous
I agree with you because you said that you don't care what people put in the kids food as long it doesn't hurt the kid. It would be an extremely hard task to feed hundreds of kids everyday. You need some preservatives to keep the food from going bad and keeping it tasting fresh. Pre-prepared foods keep foods from getting a food-borne illness such as salmonella. Something healthy to eat shouldn't be something to argue over.

the1 said...

I do not think that adding these ingredients is a big deal. this is because it is beneficial for our bodies. For example, in the video half the ingredients were vitamins and minerals. This is not bad for us in any way. This is why adding these ingredients is good for us and not concerning.

Emma said...

I feel with some of these products that people do not know a lot about they should not serve. These burgers should not be served in schools unless they decide to change the recipe and put know, healthy products into them.

the1 said...

@kirillr98 They do not add the caramel coloring to mask the burger not being cooked. In the video, it said that it makes it look like it was grilled, so it would look more appetizing. Burgers still have to be cooked thoroughly or else we'd all be sick.

Emma said...

Breberlover10 said...
" I think that this is not ok" i agree with Emily because this is so unhealthy for all children. Parent depend on the schools to give there children healthy lunches and most schold are giving out these burgers that are not healthy becuase of some of the ingredients poeple do not know about.

Man on the Moon said...

This should be band because it is like shooting ourselves in the foot before a track meet or a swim meet. We are hurting the future of tommorow if they say kids are future of tommorow unless they want that future to full of unhealthy couch potatoes. If these canadites such as Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum really want to save America, they have to save its future or else paying of the debt, solving foreign affairs and lowering the unemployment rate or else we will end up they way we did when Roosevelt left office after he essentially solved all of our problems and eventually after many years ending up where we are now. So they have to fix our future and the first way is with its health.

Man on the Moon said...

Emma I agree with you because a lot of people don't know about this like me until I read these articles. This is bad because of the main fact that some of these things aren't natural and not good for you. But another fact that is just plain disturbing is the fact they tell us these things or make an effort to fix errors of there ways. But since no one has fixed these errors they have become mistakes as JFK once said "Errors aren't mistakes until no one has tried fixing them." So these are still errors we can fix so why don't we fix them. So therefore we must fix the error of putting these unnatural ingredients in our food before it becomes a mistake

Muffin Man 101 said...

I don't think that schools should give us food that could harm us because it is very un-healthy. I don't think it is as bad as people think because there is also bad ingredients in foods that we eat at our houses. People pay for a burger so that is what they should get not all of the bad ingredients that hurt people.

abc123comewithme said...

At first I protested this idea because 26 ingredients is a lot for a simple burger. then I realized that a lot of it was just fancy scientific names for basic stuff (like sodium chloride is salt). but when I saw that they needed to put soy flour, that blue powder stuff and carmel coloring to make it LOOK grilled? i was astonished. can we as american children (and even some adults) not realize that we are eating colored 'burgers' that are made of lean meat? (a.k.a pink slime). i have only 2 more questions; who is going to take a stand against this and how are they going to do it? let me know; i'd like to join in ;).

Muffin Man 101 said...

I believe that if people have a problem with the lunch then they should just pack their own. Schools give you an option to pack a lunch in case you don't like what the school is serving. It is the parents' job to feed their kids so if they have a problem with it then there is an easy solution. Don't eat the food!

abc123comewithme said...

@the1
sure half of them are vitamins and minerals but what about the other stuff that they are putting in it? the carmel coloring, the blue powder, the 'artificial flavorings'? do you care that they are serving that to us?

blah blah blah said...

I think that it is okay, but slightly gross, if schools offer processed foods if they are safe. For example, as long as a student doesn't drop dead or show negative affects from eating said processed food, then it should be allowed to be served in schools. Therefore, I think that it would be acceptable if schools offer processed foods that are safe reasonably healthy for the students.

blah blah blah said...

@ Muffin Man 101
I agree with you when you say that if you don't like what the school cafeterias serve, then don't eat it. Like you said in your response, the solution is simple if you don't feel like eating the cafeteria lunches; bring your own lunch! For example, the easy solution of bringing your own lunch avoids conflict and you having to eat cafeteria food. For these reasons do I agree with you when you say that if you don't like cafeteria food, than simply bring your own lunch.

Kayleigh said...

We shouldn't put thing in our body that we don't know of. Its gross. You probably haven't heard of Aspartame but its in most gum. "They "excite" or stimulate the neural cells to death." says mercola.com. We should not put chemicals such as aspartame in our body. Everyday someone killing a cell because they eat Aspartame.

kayleigh said...

Jess T. I agree with you on the part were we could get rid of pink slime

Jessm said...

I think that all chemically changed foods should not be aloud to be sold at schools. Not just burgers but all foods shouldn't be chemically changed. Parents pay a lot of money and expect their children to receive a healthy lunch, and one that they'll enjoy, they wouldn't want their kids eating things that could harm them. Like the quote in the article says, when you don't know whats in all those chemicals and have no idea what they're gonna do to you're body, you're not going to want to eat them. Therefore chemically changed foods should not be aloud in schools.

jessm said...

I disagree with blah blah blah. I think no matter what's in the chemicals they still should not be served to kids at school. The chemical might not make you "drop dead" or make them sick, it will still be very unhealthy. The food that is served wouldn't even be real food. It's processed and sometimes can even be completely fake chemically made food. If schools are aloud to serve that to paying students, then eventually all foods at stores and markets might end up all chemically changed. That is not a healthy way for people to be eating therefore I disagree with you.

Ryan35 said...

Although I think it is best to avoid chemicals in food, I think that some places don't have a choice. Schools have a budget and it takes money to hire a chef like they did in the article. It is cheaper to just warm frozen food. I think that as long as it doesn't harm anyone, it's okay. These school's must have been using these ingredients for a while now and since nobody has died yet, I think it is okay.

Ryan35 said...

@jessm
Schools have probably been selling this stuff for a long time. It doesn't make anyone sick and these ingredients are in a lot of things such as "a burger served in schools to veggie burgers in the frozen food aisle of the grocery store." Besides it would take a lot of money to hire3 chefs. That's why I think that, although they should keep these foods to a minimum, they should still be allowed to sell it.

little monster said...

Having all kids bring in bagged lunches is not a good idea.One reason why is that not all parents have the time to make bagged lunches and if they did make bagged lunches they could be late for work and get fired and nowadays if you get fired it is harder to get a job again.One more reason is that you could by the time you get to lunch not have much food left left because you didn't have much food to began with and eat some during snack and your lunch might not be that filling but if you buy lunch the food would be warm and filling and a lot more food then what you had in your lunch box.

little monster said...

@panthers502 I agree with you that we should hold of on the burgers because we don't know what is in them and the affect they have on us because if you don't know what is in the burger and you keep on getting it you could get really sick.

little monster said...

@Ryan35
I disagree with you on that because lately lots more people have been getting sick and it could be because they are adding a lot more pink slime to things and in the past they might have had little to non pink slime in things and had added more because it is harder to make food without pink slime nowadays.We also don't know that pink slime is making us sick because when you go to the doctor when you are sick they may know the illness but they don't always know what caused you to get sick.

Kevin 0 said...

I believe that this gross. With too much ingredients, there are too many chemicals. All of these chemicals will hurt us and could get us sick. The food at school is OK but you can tell it is processed. For example, the chicken nuggets are brown on the inside, if you take a bite out of one and look inside it is brown and makes you lose your apatite. Another example is the chicken patties, they are also brown on the inside. I believe that the people are lazy that are making the food and selling them to our school. For some reason it is ok to sell kids "food" for 2.45. This is not only very expensive, the food that they buy are not as expensive. this is why I believe that the food that they are selling is gross.

Anonymous said...

I think that the school should offer better alternatives but not get rid of their "hamburgers" if they really don't want to. Maybe they should offer salads or natural burgers. The reason that they don't have to change everything is because it would be a huge inconvenience. However, they can't force kids to bring their own lunch because they may be unable to for some reason or another. I think that this would be the best way because it works out for everyone.

Anonymous said...

@AVgleek17
I completely agree with you. It's one thing to use chemically changed meat, but it's quite another to give it to kids without telling them. I think this is terrible, especially since it fattens them up which is a major issue that we are currently struggling with in America. That is why this chemically changed meat is so horrible in my opinion and why I agree with you.

Logan S. said...

I think that I would rather want to eat food that I knew what was in it. I wouldn't want to eat food with a discusding ingredients that I have no clue about. I agree with Lonnett because i would also want to know what something is and what it is made of before i put it into my body and my system. In my school I have heard of a rumor that the food is made of pink slime. If that is right then I would never put that type of food into my system and risk getting sick and maybe even have to go tot the hospital. Just next time you seem suspicious about a food and what it is made of, then stay suspicious and find out more facts about so you don't put a bad substance in your system.

Logan S. said...

I agree with you Peter P because I also think that you would not be able to know what ingredients were in a cheeseburger and if you were allergic to them. Cooks need to make regular all beef burgers and not unknown ingredients that could possibly kill someone. Chefs need to know what substances are in burgers and if they are dangerous and if they are dangerous then they need to throw them out or destroy them.

disneydancer12 said...

I think that the ingredients put into school burgers are just too much. they only need to put in what's nessecary. All of that other stuff is just extra and "might" help your body. some of the ingredients that are put into the burgers are good, but others are just bizzare.

disneydancer12 said...

@logan s i agree. i don't want to eat foods that i don't know what is in it. i would rather know what i put in my body and not take risks of getting sick.

marktex5025 said...

We should be given better lunches because we pay for these. Parents spend money towards school lunches, so we should be getting high quality meals. Not ones with 26 unknown, never heard of ingredients that could potentially be unhealthy! We pay taxes for lunch and we have to also pay to recieve the lunches. Therefore, we should be getting better school lunches because our money is going to waste by spending it for disgusting, unhealthy lunches.

marktex5025 said...

@logan s
I agree that I would rather know what is in my lunches because it would not be worth it to get sick. Even if I didn't have time to pack a lunch, I wouldn't eat something that is possibly unhealthy, or will put me at a risk of sickness. Worst case, I can always eat something when I get home! Therefore, we should be informed with what we eat, otherwise we will not eat school lunches, and just eat when we get home, when we know what we are eating.

Imagine11 said...

I believe that while it is disgusting that schools would allow students to buy lunches that have that much more unnecessary, bad ingredients, but I am happy that people are finally doing something about it. In the article it stated, "Thiamine mononitrate, disodium inosinate, pyridoxine hydrochloride.Why are these hard-to-pronounce ingredients added to everything from a burger served in schools to veggie burgers." The article also stated that, ""We now have 36 school [parent teacher associations] that have signed a resolution that encourages the county to make changes," says JoAnne Hammermaster, head of RFFK." Therefore, this shows that while people are now finding out what is in our school lunches, from "pink slime" to these other ingredients, they are now trying to help solve this problem as quickly as they possibly can.

Imagine11 said...

@!Dance!
I completely agree with your opinion because I also think that it is wrong that people would serve this food to children in school lunches. You said that, "Back then, the lunch ladies would acually make the food for children by hand. I feel like they should still be doing that no matter how long it will take or how hard it is becasue it is their job and they should care about what is in the food children are eating." You also said, "Also, when the children are young they do not know how to make their own lunch or snack. It is not just this California school with the processed and unhealthy food, our school also is going through having this food!" Therefore, since I also thought these points before and mentioned them in my comment, I agree with your blog post.

Anonymous said...

@ Jessica T., I agree with you because these chemicals in the food is not safe at all. I think if scientist tested this food out to see if it's defiantly good or bad for a fact will be very helpful but also keep the students safe from getting sick.

Anonymous said...

I think that schools shouldn't be allowed to serve food with the chemicals in it because it is not safe at all. After seeing the pink slime in burger meat, it will only make it worse if they continue to give it to kids. They put so much ingredients into it that they don't even need. How do they get away with it?This is why I think it is not safe.

Devon S. said...

I don't think that it's okay to feed student food like this because it's extreamly unhealthy! What they consider "safe" is not good for us, that's why chemicals have do not eat warnings on them! I think it is better for schools to pay for chefs because they are supposed to keep us safe and a chef that cooks from scratch would not have chemicals in our lunches! I don't think that parents should have to always pack kids lunches because of the disgusting food because some parents have to work in the morning or work too late to make lunches so they have their kids buy lunch. Parents shouldn't have to worry about their kids eating chemicals at a school, which is supposed to be a safe environment!

Devon S. said...

marktex5025
I agree with you because our parents do pay money for these lunches, not to have their children given chemically changes meat with strange ingredients. I think that parents would be willing to pay a little extra money so that their kids are not eating foods that aren't good for them. I also agree with the fact that the money we give is being wasted because they buy cheap foods, so what do they do with the rest of the money?

CandyS. said...

I feel that it is okay for schools to be offering the chemically changed burgers if they are safe. This is because the burgers contain important things for our body such as protein, nutrients and vitamins. Certain compounds such as copper gluconate are there to enrich the meat and help our cells. They are micronutrients and minerals. Therefore, since they chemically changed burgers include proteins, vitamins and minerals that are helpful to our body, I feel that it is okay for schools to be offering this type of meat.

CandyS. said...

I feel that it is okay for schools to be offering the chemically changed burgers if they are safe. This is because the burgers contain important things for our body such as protein, nutrients and vitamins. Certain compounds such as copper gluconate are there to enrich the meat and help our cells. They are micronutrients and minerals. Therefore, since they chemically changed burgers include proteins, vitamins and minerals that are helpful to our body, I feel that it is okay for schools to be offering this type of meat.

CandyS. said...

I believe that it is okay to serve chemically altered food in school cafeterias because parents can be assured that the food is safe. Since manufacturers cross examine the meat they supply to schools, parents and guardians can be confident that the meat doesn't contain any food-borne illnesses. Penny McConnell, director of Fairfax County's Office of Food and Nutrition Services says, "That product that comes from a manufacturer, it's gone through lab analysis and safety checks, so I know it's safe." She feels that since manufacturers are required to check their products, it decreases chances of getting a food-borne illness. Therefore, since the chemically altered meat is properly examined to prevent illness that usually comes from raw meat, I feel it is okay to use this meat in school cafeterias.

whencupcakesattack said...

Personally, I do not think it is ok for school food services to be offering us chemically altered lunch items. Even if some might be considered "safe", I still don't think they are very trustworthy. I feel like if any kind of chemical is added to the school lunches, its not worth it. In every way, chemicals are still harmful, even if they are very slight. Taking the risk, for me, doesn't seem fair. I think that the school lunches should try making lunches from scratch even if it costs more money. And of course, if they are scratch made, they would be fresher, healthier, and safer for the children. And there is ALWAYS the way to go when you know your child will be safe, is when you can just pack a lunch. It is healthier, and saves you over-all money.

whencupcakesattack said...

@marktex5025
I agree with you. I think that since our parents (and even some kids) need to pay for these lunches, we should be receiving better quality foods. I think that it's not worth spending almost $3 per lunch on an unhealthy and junky lunch filled with at least 26 unknown chemicals that for all we know are somewhat harmful. Even if these chemicals aren't harmful, these lunches are still unhealthy and fatty anyways. The other ingredients packed into these lunches are incredible and they are not worth the waste of money when you can eat a much healthier lunch that was packed from home.

Hayley M said...

I feel that it is very un-healthy to feed the students this food because it is very VERY un-healthy. Putting all of these chemicals into our body is going to cause us to get sick more often. Also, now learning that school does that, it will be hard to trust any food they give us because they kept this a secret for so long.

Hayley M said...

@ Muffin Man 101, I disagree. Parents trust the school to feed their kids correctly. They didn't know the burgers had all of those chemicals in them therefore they didn't feel the need to pack their child a lunch because they thought this food would be safe.

Avacado said...

Personally, I think that 26 ingredients in a burger is just ridiculous. A burger should have a max of maybe 5 ingredients. With 26 ingredients in there, is it really safe to eat? Now that we all know about the pink slime in the ground meat with harmful chemicals, what is to say there isn't worse things in the meat? There may as well be other things in there that will make us sick, even processed paste and such. Therefore, I think that 26 ingredients is too many for a burger, and is unhealthy.

Avacado said...

@ Language Arts Student,
I agree with you that 26 ingredients is to many, and that the government should really keep tabs and make sure the food we eat is healthy. First of all, 26 ingredients is way to many. I mean, what things are needed in a burger more than beef, maybe a spice, and something to take out bacteria? 26 ingredients tells me that there are some unhealthy things in that burger. In addition, I think that the government should be watching what is being put into foods to keep us safe and healthy. Without this, we may become very ill people. Therefore, I think that something should be done about foods with more than a few ingredients.

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna tell it to you strait," WE WANT REAL MEAT!!" I mean I still can't believe that they are still giving this fake stuff out. I mean 26 ingredeant's come on. Just a thought wouldnt it be cheaper to not buy all these extra ingredeant. But I still can't get it there giving stuff out that is so unhealthy.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Simeong because I don't think it could harm your body, but it could add so many more calories. But I still can't get over that they put so many terrible ingredeants to one stupid burger.