Trump's ‘mystery meat’ deal sparks fears among consumers ahead of midterms: ‘Never eating another hamburger till…’ | Hindustan Times

President Donald Trump sparked fears about ‘mystery meat’ when he announced in late August on plans of flooding the US market with thousands of metric tons of foreign ground beef. This would be sold at much lower rates than current market prices. Trump's announcement came ahead of the midterms and caused uproar among cattle ranchers. Recently, to pacify them, the president announced that they sell meat directly to consumers. Given that the president considers ranchers a key part of his constituents, Trump also announced that his government intended to help smaller butchers and ranchers who want to process their own beef. This will allow them to compete against the four big meatpacking companies who control about 85% of the industry. These include Tyson, Cargill, National Beef and JBS. While NPR reported that ranchers have been left feeling optimistic with President Trump's latest announcements, the same cannot be said for customers. At least on social media, many expressed hesitation about consuming meat without knowing their origins. Where is the mystery meat from?Initially, when Trump was asked about where he was importing the ground beef from, the president had said “I don't want to say.” Meanwhile, he had announced on Truth Social that the US would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of imported product for ground beef without the usual out-of-quota tariff.Also Read | Trump losing support from Indian-Americans ahead of November midterms, survey findsTrump's aim has been to reduce the price of ground beef to help consumers, but his initial refusal to say where the beef was from sparked some fears about the 'mystery meat'. Later, the president went on to say that the meat was coming from Brazil and Argentina. However, a recent opinion published in the New York Times has led to a fresh wave of fears online. In the opinion by Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, he writes about Trump's recent decision to import meat saying “The cuts of meat covered by Mr. Trump’s proclamation aren’t fresh sirloins, rib-eyes and filets. They’re lean beef trimmings that will be added to fattier American cuts to make ground beef. They’re small chunks of frozen meat that could have been kept in cold storage overseas for years. They are the quintessence of generic industrial meat, imported here to be subsequently processed in massive grinders that combine pieces of tens of thousands of cattle from multiple countries, mainly into fast food hamburgers.”Consumers fearful about meat after Trump's new changesGiven the widespread impact on consumers likely to occur due to the meat import changes under President Trump, many have expressed their thoughts online. One wrote “I'm never eating another hamburger until 2029,” indicating the end of Trump's term. Another added “This 600 million in mystery meat Trump is importing? It’s Brazilian beef that was literally just banned by the EU. The company owner was at the WH the day before he announced it.” However, there's no reports on whether the US is importing banned meat. Yet another said “It just got that much worse: China rejected 22 tons of Argentinian beef laced with a banned antibiotic. Now Trump is importing 300,000 tons of “beef” soon to hit grocery store shelves but refuses to answer where it will be coming from.” While reports have indicated that China did refuse a shipment of Argentinian meat, it has been fact-checked that they refused meat from a single slaughterhouse due to contamination fears, and not products from the entire country. Further, as per NewsNation, there's no indication that the tainted meat is coming to the US.