By Josie Barker
Dreaming of milkshakes and buns enclosing greasy good ground chuck, I grow bored of 6th period, and start fantasizing of a world stocked with patties upon patties. Staring up at the clock, I notice the bell is soon to ring, and thankfully, Friday evening has begun, and mom promised McDonalds tonight.
Diving into my rightfully earned Quarter Pounder, I let the perfectly curated saucy goodness drizzle off my lower lip into an oily puddle pooled up on crinkled wrappers. I fix my eyes back down onto my cheeseburger and notice my patty appears off. On top of the cheese, a finger nail sticks out, and my gummy smile fades into a freaked out frown.
Fast food, everyone’s had it, but have you ever wondered what lies in your nuggets, your burger, or even your vanilla shake? Well, let me tell you about the mystery meat you consume and the processed syrups you drink, and make sure you sit down, because this is going to be hard to digest. This article is about the dark side of the all-american meal.
There’s thousands of reasons as to why someone may pick up a position working in a fast food workplace. Most of these entry-level food service jobs don’t require as much as a GED, consequently raising a larger question: are these workers qualified to handle your meals? In 1993, Jack in the Box provided undercooked hamburgers for their customers, leading to the largest, and most detrimental E. coli outbreak in fast food history, killing 4 children and infecting 732 people across four US states. Most E. coli is “harmless,” however, those not-so-safe bacteria can damage the small intestine’s lining, bestowing the consumer with the burden of watery diarrhea, vomiting, cramping, and sometimes death. Harmful germs can be found anywhere, especially in environments where cleanliness isn’t a priority. Lamentably, many foodscapes act as habitats for these infectious microbes, and the absence of hygiene from irresponsible employees. Notably, chances of unsanitary surfaces and contaminants in food increase when those in charge of dispensing meals forget to wash hands between the creation of a Big Mac, and the cleaning of a toilet. Unfortunately, due to the fast food work force, experience and skills are lacking, and truthfully, almost anyone with a minimal formal education can get hired. Now, if the person handling your meal may not be suited to serve you as they didn’t wash their hands after the bathroom, what does that say about the individuals in charge of producing your food?
The meatpacking industry bestows hazards for both the consumer, and the producer during the process of transforming, processing, and distributing slaughtered livestocks. As a customer, we fail to realize what lies beyond our seasoned patties. Plainly speaking, an animal goes in, boxes of meat come out, but what happens behind the closed factory doors?
From holding pen to abattoir, the livestock born and raised in an artificial life are sliced and diced, cleaned up and sorted out into neat, tiny boxes, shipped to a Carl’s Jr. halfway across the world. Mothering two calves, Marie, a dairy cow, lives her life in a farm out in Oklahoma. On her second birthday, she watches as her kin are forcibly dragged out of her care where they are placed in large jammed trucks, transported to an overcrowded feedlot. Without time to grieve for the absence of her children, Marie’s udders, now ready for her juveniles, are taken advantage of, stressed for the harvesting of milk for human consumption. At age 5, farmers notice Marie’s milk production has slowed, and she has reached an admirable amount of fat cover. Stripped from her homeland, Marie ships off to the nearby slaughterhouse. Dangled by her hooves, she watches as her comrades disappear in waves of razor blades, and soon, her world goes dark. Her eyelids flutter open, and Marie feels zips of pain sparking throughout her body, for the meatpackers assigned to Marie’s wellbeing failed to stun her properly before the skinning process began.
Marie’s ripe body, now left carcass-like, faces a specialized room equipped with temperatures as low as 30-40 degree Fahrenheit, where her corpse chills for just over a day (this is required to inhibit bacterial growth in the time between an animal being harvested and cut/packaged). Left there for almost fourteen days, her chilled meat is now ready for aging. Surrounded by salt walls, Marie’s carcass has avoided deterioration while abandoned in the aging chambers for seventeen days.
The cadaver, chilled and aged, enters the next step in this gruesome meaty rollercoaster designed to break down the corpse. Chopped into quarters, the trimmers ensure each package traveling down lines of conveyor belts are evenly occupied and sealed with quality-assured stamps. Inspectors are placed throughout the operation sites, testing residue and other possible product problems. However, one easily misses the sliced off phalange amidst the rotating piles of “true” bologna. The tiled floors are scattered with bits and pieces of cow, and scraps of fat cover the ground, while chunks of meat soar off the machinery. The importance of wearing boots vs slides comes into play after getting a hunk of sheep wedged between your toes. Slaughterhouse employees are equipped with safety gear and training to ensure the prevention of incidents while on site. However, despite precautions, mishaps happen, slips occur, and the seemingly reliable paraphernalia doesn’t protect employees enough. Lacerations, amputations, and cuts, the holy trinity of sideffects when working as a meatpacker.
One of America’s most dangerous jobs, meatpacking leaves thousands of its workers with injuries annually. Swept under the rug, many deaths arising from the slaughterhouse go unreported each year. While pulling hides, Samuel Martinez, a jobholder at a Fresh Mark plant, caught his leg in a waste auger, leading to a fatal accident. Making the headlines in 2019, thirty-five year old Jill Greninger, an employee at the Economy Locker Storage Company in Muncy, fell to her demise due to her unfortunate landing into a meat grinder. Moving on, meat processing remains unsanitary on account of unavoidable human contaminants such as hair and fingernails. Although not intentional ingredients, these additions to a recipe serve as the fine line between a content belly and one full of pathogens.
So let me ask you this, how many chunks of brain matter have you found in your pink patties? The answer is… you wouldn’t know. You wouldn’t deem your burger impure while ingesting meat with hints of brain matter the nervous system because taste and appearance wouldn’t be the deal breaker, as brain blends in perfectly well with beef. Pray your meatball sub’s fleshy relics left behind from the cooked cattle contains protein and not baneful bacillus. Hey, at least your shake is safe! Except… maybe not. The fact remains, that thick, tasty milkshake you crave uses artificial flavors curated in labs, and not chocolate or strawberries.
Next time you set out for another Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme, perhaps opt out for a freshly made sandwich, or at the bare minimum, wipe down your table before digging in.