Five years after Beef Products Inc. first filed a lawsuit against ABC News, blaming it for tying its name to the idea of “pink slime” — what the meat processor calls lean finely textured beef products — the defamation trial is underway in South Dakota. [More]
pink slime
Pink Potato Slime May One Day Save Us All From Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
By 11.13.15
When root vegetables are stored in an area that’s too damp, they can grow a pink slime that breaks down cell walls and is generally gross. The rot comes from a bacteria, called Clostridium puniceum, that normally only grows only in areas with no oxygen. Why would it grow in an environment where there’s plenty of oxygen? The answer is in the slime. [More]
McDonald’s, If It’s Come To This, Just Improve Your Food
By 5.21.15
“We’ve heard the same rumors you have,” says a recent publication from McDonald’s. “Fillers in our beef, so called ‘pink slime.'” The message is fine, but the location is problematic: McDonald’s is not only protesting a little too much, but this message is on a tray placemat. In one of their restaurants. The kind that you look at while you eat your McDonald’s food. [More]
Pink Slime Plant Reopens Because High Beef Prices Mean There’s A Need For Cheaper Ingredients
By 8.13.14
More than two years after Beef Products Inc. announced it would permanently close three of its four “pink slime” processing plants, the company is reversing course and reopening a Kansas plant. [More]
McDonald’s Reminds Customers That It No Longer Uses Pink Slime In Burgers
By 5.13.14
The Internet is a vast landscape of knowledge just waiting to be mined for your personal edification. But just like Winston Churchill didn’t say “Somebody’s got a case of the Mondays!” just because someone slapped a caption on a photo of the guy and plastered it all over Facebook, not everything you read about fast food is necessarily true. [More]
ABC Asks Judge To Toss Out Beef Company’s “Pink Slime” Defamation Lawsuit
By 12.18.13
Thinking about the actual texture and consistency of your common slime, one might come to the idea that the stuff would move along rather slowly. And that same sluggish image also comes to mind in the legal brouhaha over ABC News’ coverage of lean, finely textured beef, otherwise known as “pink slime.” It just keeps slorping along, with ABC now asking a judge to toss the whole suit out, more than a year after Beef Products Inc. first filed it. [More]
Cargill To Label Ground Beef Products Containing ‘Pink Slime’ Meat
By 11.5.13
Though ground beef producers have been filling out their products for years with what is technically known as “finely textured beef,” but which is now known by the less appetizing name “pink slime,” chemically-treated beef trimmings that the industry and USDA say is harmless, but which some have labeled a “cheap substitute” and “economic fraud.” After nearly two years of stories about the stuff, one of the nation’s largest beef producers has decided to start labeling products that have been pink slimed. [More]
Beef Battle Continues With “Pink Slime” Defamation Lawsuit Headed Back To State Court
By 6.13.13
Remember that whole pink slime thing? Yeah, back before everyone in Europe was concerned about horsemeat in their burgers, America was freaking out over finely textured beef, dubbed “pink slime” by celebrity health advocates and news outlets. Beef Products Inc. sued ABC News and its parent company for defamation related to the scandal way back in September, and that lawsuit is still lumbering along with a move back to a state court from a federal one. Which is happy news for BPI, perhaps not so for the defendants. [More]
Former Beef Worker Sues Chef Jamie Oliver, ABC News & Diane Sawyer Over “Pink Slime”
By 12.13.12
The beef industry isn’t about to forget about that whole “pink slime” thing, wherein ABC News and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver used the phrase to bring attention to a widely used product known as lean finely textured beef. Beef Products Inc. filed suit against ABC back in September, and now a former employee of the company is suing the news network, anchor Diane Sawyer, Oliver and others, claiming he lost his job because of the pink slime controversy. [More]
Vast Majority Of Schools Involved In National Lunch Program Don’t Want Pink Slime In Their Beef
By 6.5.12
School districts across the country are snubbing the beef product known and loathed by many as “pink slime,” says the U.S Department of Agriculture. The USDA notes that the vast majority of states participating in its National School Lunch Program are ordering ground beef that doesn’t have the filler called “lean finely textured beef” by those who make it. [More]
BPI To Permanently Shut Down Three Of Four Pink Slime Plants
By 5.8.12
The pink slime storm of controversy may have faded a bit since it hit in March, but the after-effects are still being felt. Beef Products Inc. announced that it will permanently close three processing plants this month, due to the ruckus over its meat product, according to a company official. [More]
Guess What, Folks? Pink Slime Isn't The Only Food With Ammonia In It
By 4.5.12
During the recent outpouring of “eww, that’s gross” over pink slime, Americans had a collective freakout over ammonia-treated beef. But hey, why not expand the revulsion with this tasty tidbit: Foods including cheese, baked goods and chocolate products are also involved with ammonia. [More]
Cargill & Tyson Unafraid Of Pink Slime Backlash, No Plant Shutdowns Planned
By 4.3.12
While other producers of finely textured beef, now known to many as “pink slime,” are dialing back their output of the controversial stuff, major beef processors Cargill and Tyson are all like, “Shrug! Business as usual.” They will produce less of the stuff, but that doesn’t mean they’ll close plants or cut jobs. [More]
Beef Products Company Files For Bankruptcy & Blames Pink Slime
By 4.2.12
AFA Foods makes beef products, including the filler denounced recently as “pink slime,” and the outcry over the stuff is why they’re filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A company spokesman says the business was already struggling, but that the backlash against boneless beef trimmings just put a nail in their meat coffin. [More]
Beef Company Insists Pink Slime Doesn't Exist, While Critics Say It Ain't Ground Beef
By 3.28.12
The makers of the ground beef filler we all know now as “pink slime” aren’t taking this nickname lying down. After losing business from grocery stores, Beef Products Inc. is fighting back in the media, insisting pink slime isn’t even a real thing. Opponents of the stuff are firing right back. [More]
There Are Now 900,000 Fewer Pounds Of "Pink Slime" Being Produced Each Day
By 3.26.12
With several supermarket chains — including Kroger and Safeway — opting to stop selling ground beef that contains “lean, finely textured beef,” the ammonia-treated filler affectionately known as “pink slime,” the company that pumps out the stuff has had to suspend production at three of its four slime-making facilities. [More]
Kroger Joins Ranks Of Supermarkets Who Won't Sell "Pink Slime"
By 3.22.12
More than a week after clarifying which of its ground beef products do and do not contain the ammonia-treated beef trimmings known by two wildly different names — “lean finely textured beef” or “pink slime” — Kroger, the country’s largest grocery store chain, has decided to nix the controversial filler altogether. [More]
Safeway To Stop Selling Ground Beef That Contains "Pink Slime"
By 3.21.12
It’s been a bad year for “lean finely textured beef,” better known by the less-tasty moniker “pink slime.” The ammonia-treated beef trimmings that have been used as ground beef filler for decades is quickly becoming a pariah at U.S. grocery stores like Safeway, which has announced it will no longer sell the stuff. [More]
