Slim Jim ingredients: what's banned overseas?

About Slim Jim

Slim Jim is a meat snack stick brand owned by ConAgra Brands, sold at convenience stores, grocery chains, and mass retailers across the US since 1928. Made from a blend of beef, pork, and mechanically separated chicken, Slim Jim is one of the best-selling meat snacks in the country. It generates hundreds of millions in annual US sales.

Common concerns with Slim Jim products

Slim Jim contains sodium nitrite — a curing agent linked by the WHO to increased cancer risk in the context of processed meat consumption. WHO's IARC classifies processed meats as Group 1 carcinogens. Slim Jim also contains mechanically separated chicken, textured soy flour, corn syrup, dextrose, and hydrolyzed soy protein (a hidden source of glutamate, similar to MSG). The combination of sodium nitrite, processed meat, and multiple food additives makes Slim Jim one of the more concerning US meat snacks.