USDA says beef hearts are now OK in ground beef

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has made it okay to use beef hearts in ground beef. It ends an almost 40-year prohibition on the use of hearts and tongues in ground beef. The policy turnaround has caught the beef industry by surprise, with disclosure of whether ground beef is made and sold with beef hearts included not required. That has set off an industry discussion about transparency. USDA’s long operated under “Policy Memo 027” that said beef hearts should be kept out of ground beef because consumers would not expect to fine beef hearts in ground beef. However, the new policy is also said to be consistent with a longtime FSIS definition of ground beef that also permitted beef hearts as potential ingredients in ground beef...more