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| Looking inside the Slim Jim. Photo: Rachel Been |
According to manufacturer ConAgra, the Slim Jim was invented by Philadelphia sausage-maker Adolph Levis in 1928. The cellophane-wrapped sausage sticks were originally sold in jars that sported an illustration of a "tall, elegant man complete with top hat and cane" named "Slim Jim."
Today's Slim Jim, with an ad campaign that lets you create an avatar and wander around "Spicy Side," is likely a far cry from the original. And it's got Wired wondering where that meat stick comes from.
According to Wired, of the eight grades of beef classified by the USDA, its "the bottom three -- utility, cutter and canner -- [that] are typically used in processed foods and come from older steers with partially ossified vertebrae, tougher tissue and generally less reason to live."
Manufacturer ConAgra says the Slim Jim is made from beef, mechanically separated chicken, water, salt, corn syrup, dextrose, flavorings, spice, paprika, hydrolyzed corn gluten, soy and wheat gluten proteins, sodium nitrite and lactic acid starter culture. Yum!
Perhaps not as appetizing as it seemed at first, the second ingredient on the list, "mechanically separated chicken," is, according to the USDA, "a paste-like and batter-like meat product produced by forcing bones with attached edible meat under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue."
The next few ingredients come as no surprise in processed food: salt, corn syrup (sugar), dextrose (sugar), flavorings, spice and paprika. Which is a spice, begging the question, "What are those other spices?"
ConAgra did not return calls for comment from Slashfood on the issue.
The dextrose is likely food for the lactic acid starter culture, according to Wired, meaning that, like other fermented sausages, Slim Jims "use bacteria and sugar to produce lactic acid, which lowers the pH of the sausage to around 5.0, firming up the meat and hopefully killing all harmful bacteria." The sodium nitrate keeps it from turning an unappetizing shade of gray and the hydrolyzed soy gives the Slim Jim a flavor boost, Wired reports.
So what do you think about the Slim Jim? Let us know in the comments, and read more about disarming ingredients in food at AOL Health.
[Via Wired]
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