When a Walmart customer opens the package of ground beef she recently purchased, she is shocked by the quality. In a video with almost 5 million views, content creator Chelsey Marie Fitzgerald (@thefriendlykitchen) shows viewers the meat and voices her suspicions about the product.
“I did my grocery order from Walmart and this is the hamburger they gave us,” Fitzgerald says in the video, opening the package and mashing the greyish-pink meat in her hands.
“Y’all remember when hamburger used to have literally the red lines in it? It feels like moon sand. What are they doing?” She continues.
“None of this is normal…for the first time, I’m worried about the meat I’m getting from the store. I think it’s time to go to a butcher.”
Fitzgerald describes the meat as having a “gel-like consistency,” calling it “pasty.” As she cooks the hamburger meat in a skillet, she takes notice of the large amount of grease produced.
“That is so deep with grease…the grease goes to the lines in my spatula…Yeah that’s not 80/20, in my opinion that’s 50/50,” she says, referring to the meat’s advertised percentage of 80% lean meat and 20% fat.
After cooking the meat, Fitzgerald then strains it with a colander and lets the excess grease collect in a bowl. “That is a lot of grease,” she says a final time as the video ends.
The text overlay in the video reads: “That is NOT 80/20. Is it even real meat?” Followed by Fitzgerald’s caption which reads: “I suspicious.”
Viewers weigh in on U.S. beef
In the comments, users reacted to the quality of the meat and shared concerns for the quality of food in the United States.
“Never buy tube burger…fresh ground from a local butcher,” came one comment.
“What are y’all eating in the US?” another viewer asked.
“Pink sludge. Gotta go to a farmer friend,” a third person shared.
“I refuse to buy any meat from Wal-Mart,” a fourth user wrote, with Fitzgerald replying, “I clearly made a huge mistake. Lesson learned.”
What’s the scoop with Walmart’s meat products?
This isn’t the first time Walmart’s meat products have come under scrutiny. The Daily Dot has previously reported on a Walmart worker who went viral for slamming the company’s inflated ground beef prices, claiming the costs had doubled in the last few years. The worker, named Elizabeth, shared video of a 16 oz pack of ground beef that she says used to cost $3.94, showing that the same product now cost nearly $8.
When it comes to saving money on ground meat, however, one content creator has a solution. The Dot also recently reported on a creator who broke down how to convert $3.98/lb brisket from Sam’s Club into 12 packages of ground beef, and how to use the additional chunks of fat to make beef tallow using a grinder and a vacuum sealer.
While the creator said he “did a little better than broke even” by using this method, the quality of the meat is “definitely superior.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Fitzgerald via email and Walmart via email for more information.
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