It was pointed out in a link in another comment here that this stuff has been in 70 percent of hamburger since the 80s. The ammonia treatment to raise the PH was designed to prevent e-coli, which was a big issue back then. A different company, Cargill, uses citric acid to lower the PH in a similar product.

The last time this subject came up three years ago the complaint wasn't that it was gross, but that the process wasn't killing 100 percent of the pathogens. They fixed it, and everyone went back to sleep.

I simply pointed out that I wasn't freaked out that I've been eating it for three decades, and I'm not losing a lot of sleep over it being gone. I'm hoping this doesn't mean we get the e-coli again, but since I always thoroughly cook hamburger, I don't really sweat that either.

I may be predictable, but I don't stampede like a herd of sheep every time the media sets off a firecracker.

Now we can all go downtown for lunch tomorrow and eat raw fish, octopus tentacles, and sea urchin eggs.