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Old December 21st, 2008, 10:16 PM
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Khari Khari is offline
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Question Dilema - Plastic in Ground Meat

Hi,
I am hoping someone can give me some advice. I've been feeding my cats both ground meat and chunked meat while I am trasitioning them to raw. The ground I was buying seemed to me not very fresh. So, I purchased an electric meat grinder for now to grind fresh and freeze. I used it for the first time yesterday. Ground the meat and bones. Froze all the meat in portions and thought every thing was hunky dorey....until this morning...I noticed on one of the plastic tools that you use to shove the meat into the grinder had a piece (roughly the size of a dime) broken off. I have not seen the plastic anywhere so this means that it must have been ground into the meat. My question is - should I be concerned about this? And throw out all the meat I ground up? Or am I worrying over something minimal?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
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Old December 21st, 2008, 10:24 PM
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luckypenny luckypenny is offline
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Did you check the box/packaging the grinder came in?

I wouldn't throw all that meat out. Once thawed, you can just look/feel through it and pick out the pieces of plastic if you find some.
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Old December 21st, 2008, 10:32 PM
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Khari Khari is offline
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[QUOTE=luckypenny;717449]Did you check the box/packaging the grinder came in?


The piece came off when I was grinding the meat. I had used the part during the grinding process and it was in perfect shape. I fine ground some of the chicken and ground some in chunky pieces. I am hoping it is in the chunky pieces but with my luck it will be in the finer ground meat :sad: If I can't find it in any of the meat once thawed, do you think I should be concerned with my cats injesting the plastic?
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Old December 21st, 2008, 10:43 PM
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luckypenny luckypenny is offline
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It's not so much the pieces of plastic I'd be worried about but, what is actually contained in the plastic. So yeah, I'd be concerned with them eating it .

Was it a large amount of meat? Perhaps save the chunky ground and see if you can feel any plastic in it and throw the fine ground out?

By any chance, did you keep the packaging from the meat? Or the receipt? I'd look for the manufacturer's phone number and address. Call and let them know what happened and that you have meat wasted. Follow up with a letter and a copy of the receipt. It would be good customer service if they refunded you the amount of $$ lost.

Btw, if you have a restaurant supply store near you, you can get a really good quality "pusher" that you won't have to worry about breaking or chipping.
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Old December 21st, 2008, 10:49 PM
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Forgive me for asking the obvious (my polite way of saying "I'm asking a stupid question here"..) but have you searched all through the meat, the processor, the fridge and freezer for the piece?

If it's into wee-weee-wee-weee bits I don't think it will hurt your cat (given what else they probably chew up during the day) but ~ I'm also the type to say toss the lot (the food that is).

But, that's me. With Bridie (one of my dogs) I don't worry (over much) about the #$%%^ she eats because I know she has a cast iron stomach but with Ceili and Declan that's another story.

I've never used a plastic card with my grinder. It may be me, I'm a cook vs a baker (apparently there are cooks and bakers just like there are cat and dog people). I use my fingers except on the sharp ends of the blades of course ~ metal spatula for that) but I always unplug mine when I have to clear it.
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Old December 22nd, 2008, 07:08 AM
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Khari Khari is offline
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Quote:
***Forgive me for asking the obvious (my polite way of saying "I'm asking a stupid question here"..) but have you searched all through the meat, the processor, the fridge and freezer for the piece?

All the meat is frozen except for two portions that I am about to feed them right now. I have nothing else unthawed for them and it is time to eat. They are circling me while I am typing

I am thinking that if it goes in it will come out because it won't digest in their system. They have been eating bones now. What I am concerned with is the BPA and whatever else plastic contains. Actually when I think Of it I do remember some of the meat whiter and some point during grinding. I just thought it was the bone being ground (since it was my first time). And to come to think of it I think it was in the finely ground meat.....

I got the chickens from a farmer on Friday and did all the cutting and portioning on Saturday. I will look over the weeks worth of the fine ground and maybe throw it out.....I only did a weeks worth for her because she is picky and I didn't want to waste too much meat if she didn't like it
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Old December 22nd, 2008, 07:44 AM
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Khari Khari is offline
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GOOD NEWS....

Thank god my one cat does not eat all his food in one sitting....

I checked his food before I put it down - nothing!
He didn't eat it all so I put it on the counter for a half an hour. I just went to put it back down and found a piece of plastic in the food that was left. This was the chunkier ground meat....

I'd say that the piece I found was a good portion of the plastic so I will continue to monitor his food to find the other portion. Atleast I now know it is in the chunkier ground meat.....WHEW

Thanks for the help - I get so concerned about the welfare of my cats!!!
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Old December 25th, 2008, 03:34 PM
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When it's stringy, loopy plastic things I get very worried. But, the chances of absorbing toxins from a one-time injestion of plastic are very low (provided they are expelled) as our dogs and cats have fairly rapid digestive processes.

Squish the other stuff through your fingers as you're doing to check for other hard/ sharp bits. You should be able to find metal spatulas in the kitchen gadgets section of any department store.
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