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© dailymail.co.ukThe caustic cleaning chemical is also used widely in cheese and similar chemicals are used in baking products.
  • Caustic cleaning chemical is also used to turn milk to cheese
  • Similar chemicals used in chocolate and baked products
  • Kraft admits chemical is used in some of its foods
The controversy over ammonia-treated beef - or what critics dub 'pink slime' - broadened this week as it was revealed that the caustic cleaning chemical is also used in cheese.

Related compounds are also used in baked goods and chocolate.

Ammonia, known for its noxious odor, became a hot topic with the uproar over what the meat industry calls 'finely textured beef' and what a former U.S. government scientist first called 'pink slime'.

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© dailymail.co.ukBacklash: Meat industry experts have struck back after the 'pink slime' controversy by pointing out that the chemical is also used in cheese.
The meat industry has been trying to raise awareness of other foods that contain ammonia, in response to what it has characterized as an unfair attack on a safe and healthy product.

For example, ammonia compounds are used as leavening agents in baked goods and as an acidity controller in cheese and sometimes chocolate.

'Ammonia's not an unusual product to find added to food,' Gary Acuff, director of Texas A&M University's Center for Food Safety, told a recent press conference hosted by Beef Products Inc. 'We use ammonia in all kinds of foods in the food industry.'

After critics highlighted the product on social media websites and showed unappetizing photos on television, calling it 'pink slime,' the nation's leading fast-food chains and supermarkets spurned the product, even though U.S. public health officials deem it safe to eat.

Hundreds of U.S. school districts also demanded it be removed from school lunch programs.

One producer, Beef Products Inc, has since idled three factories. Another, AFA Foods, filed for bankruptcy protection.

Ammonia - often associated with cleaning products - was cleared by U.S. health officials nearly 40 years ago and is used in making many foods, including cheese. Related compounds have a role in baked goods and chocolate products.

Using small amounts of ammonia to make food is not unusual to those expert in high-tech food production. Now that little known world is coming under increasing pressure from concerned consumers who want to know more about what they are eating.

'I think we're seeing a sea change today in consumers' concerns about the presence of ingredients in foods, and this is just one example,' said Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety

The outrage, which many experts say has been fueled by the term 'pink slime,' seems more about the unsavoriness of the product rather than its safety.

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© dailymail.co.ukSupport: Texas Gov. Rick Perry showed his support for Beef Products Inc by tucking into a 'pink slime' burger during a tour of one of their plants.
'This is not a health issue,' said Bill Marler, a prominent food safety lawyer. 'This is an 'I'm grossed out by this' issue.'

Still, critics of so-called 'Big Food' point out that while 'pink slime' and the ammonia in it may not be harmful, consumer shock over their presence points to a wider issue.

'The food supply is full of all sorts of chemical additives that people don't know about,' said Michele Simon, a public health lawyer and president of industry watchdog consulting firm Eat Drink Politics.

Wiggins said that in turning milk to cheese, a tiny amount of ammonium hydroxide is added to a starter dairy culture to reduce the culture's acidity and encourage cheese cultures to grow.

'It is somewhat similar to activating yeast for dough by adding warm water, sugar and salt to create the proper environment for yeast growth,' Wiggins said.

In the case of ammonium phosphate, used as a leavening agent in baking, she said the heat during baking causes the gas to evaporate.