'Pink Slime' Beef Manufacturer Suspends Production At 3 Of 4 Plants Amid Outcry

LUBBOCK, Texas — The maker of "pink slime" suspended operations Monday at all but one plant where the beef ingredient is made, acknowledging recent public uproar over the product has cost the company business.

Craig Letch, director of food quality and assurance for Beef Products Inc., declined to discuss financial details but said business has taken a "substantial" hit since social media exploded with worry over the ammonia-treated filler and an online petition seeking its ouster from schools drew hundreds of thousands of supporters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided school districts may stop using it, and some retail chains have pulled products containing it from their shelves.

Federal regulators say the product, which has been used for years and is known in the industry as "lean, finely textured beef," meets food safety standards. But critics call the product an unappetizing example of industrialized food production.

Beef Products will suspend operations at plants in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kan.; and Waterloo, Iowa, Letch said. About 200 employees at each of the three plants will get full salary and benefits for 60 days during the suspension. The company's plant at its Dakota Dunes, S.D., headquarters will continue operations.

The company, meanwhile, will develop a strategy for rebuilding business and addressing what Letch called misconceptions about the beef the company makes.

"We feel like when people can start to understand the truth and reality then our business will come back," he said. "It's 100 percent beef."

The company last week took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal defending its product. It also launched a new website, , which Letch says will help dispel myths about pink slime – a term coined by a federal microbiologist grossed out by it and now widely used by critics and food activists. http://beefisbeef.com

The lower-cost ingredient is made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts. The bits are heated and spun to remove most of the fat. The lean mix then is compressed into blocks for use in ground meat. The product is exposed to ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella.

The result is a product that is as much as 97 percent lean beef, Letch said.

"At a time when so many Americans struggle to put a healthy, nutritious meal on their family's dinner table, the unfounded mischaracterization of Lean Finely Textured Beef as `pink slime' is unconscionable," Barry Carpenter, chief executive officer of the National Meat Association, said in a Monday statement. "I am sure the public is not aware of how widespread and potentially devastating the consequences of allowing public misperception to trump sound nutritional science are."

But Marion Nestle, a professor at New York University's Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, said there are other considerations.

"If this is acceptable to people, it essentially means it's OK to eat the kind of stuff we put into pet food," she said. "Culturally we don't eat byproducts of human food production. It's not in our culture. Other cultures do. We don't."

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who has campaigned against the filler's use, praised "people power" for getting it removed from so many products.

"I hope the U.S. government is also listening because it's partly responsible for lying to the public for allowing this cheap, low-quality meat filler to be used for so long without having to legally state its presence on packaging," Oliver said in an email statement provided to The Associated Press.

The beef product made headlines last year also after McDonald's and other major chains discontinued their use of ammonia-treated beef. Other processors make similar "lean beef trimmings" for inclusion in ground beef that are instead treated by citric acid.

There are no precise numbers on how often the ammonia-treated product is used and it does not have to be labeled as an ingredient. Past estimates have ranged as high as 70 percent; one industry official has estimated it is in at least half of the ground meat and burgers in the United States.

Beef Products' plant in Amarillo produced about 200,000 pounds a day, while the Kansas and Iowa plants each produced about 350,000 pounds a day.

The USDA's this year is contracted to buy 111.5 million pounds of ground beef for the National School Lunch Program. About 7 million pounds of that is from the company.

___

Online:

Beef Products Inc. website: http://beefisbeef.com

Comments

[HazelPethigFan]

10:12 AM on 03/31/2012

It's kind of funny watching people get in a tizzy over "pink slime" added to "red and white slime" (hamburger). Hamburger itself is made from undesirable cuts and isn't exactly health food.

[ncdeb6]

12:31 AM on 03/31/2012

Geez, I just found out about meat glue the other day and now THIS. You can't trust the beef industry. Profit rules, not the consumer.

[HazelPethigFan]

10:24 AM on 03/31/2012

You better learn more because many products use non-edible rendered animal products. Cosmetics use animal products and even beetles for some dyes.

Pink slime should be the least of your worries if you are concerned about this.

[SuperMom101]

08:00 AM on 03/30/2012

"Sound nutritional science?"

Dear Mr. Carpenter,

Since when do I need a lab coat, a PhD in chemistry and a "scientific" study to make my kid's a truly "healthy" and "nutritional" lunch for less than $3 bucks?

With all do respect, of course it's 100% beef - so are the eyes, ears and tail - and I don't want it in my 100% ground beef. Isn't that what you feed the family dog....not my children? After I had cancer 11 years ago - at my house - we focus on the quality of food and not the quantity so that means no more highly processed, nutritionally void, genetically engineered, steroid injected, antibiotic fed 100% beef that eats genetically modified corn for me or my family. (And our youngest can tell the difference - big time!)

Who knows - maybe America will shed a few pounds when instead of a quarter pounder with cheese they eat an 1/8 of a pound with veggies.

Cheap food can be very expensive!

Best health always...

[docallen001]

06:13 AM on 03/30/2012

Not wanting to accurately describe food products seems to be a habit with food industry. Here there is this lean finely textured beef. There is also deboned beef and other meats which is meat that has pieces of bone on it and it is all ground up so you don’t know you are getting additional calcium. Here is a quote from Wikipedia: “Mechanically separated meat may not be described simply as "meat" on food labels, but must be labeled as "mechanically separated" pork, chicken, or turkey in the ingredients statement. Hot dogs can contain no more than 20 percent mechanically separated pork.” Look up MSM to see how it is produced.
.
Many years ago the meat industry got the dept of ag to propose that companies could label the addition of chevon to their meat products. Off course they were doing that because they did not want to put the word most people would actually know – “goat” on the package label.

[flaconoire]

08:38 PM on 03/29/2012

Eat beef and die.

[Lonnie DeVorak]

07:11 PM on 03/29/2012

You need to shut down all the stupid plants and start thinking about pending law suits. You should be shot for selling such a product...totally sick!

[arial669]

12:57 PM on 03/29/2012

If you really want to get down to the issue of health, then lets cut to the chase.. Beef whether it is ground or round, chopped ect is bad for your body, because it is BEEF. Animal products like beef cause a myriad of health issues such as weight problems, high cholesterol and heart disease and cancer. not to mention the antibiotics that are in the meat from treated cows. IF you really want to eat healthy go vegan, pure and simple andstop bitching about fillers in meat. if your a meat eater and worry about fillers better not eat hotdogs or processed meat like sandwich sliced meat ect. hypocrites!!

[rodrik]

12:16 PM on 03/29/2012

The name "pink slime" killed it from the moment it went public. How could you ever expect a product that you consume to survive with a slang name like that.

[ellmo]

11:16 AM on 03/29/2012

I just want to see BPI eat 100% "pink slime" burgers with friends and family. They choose to tell me how much naturally occurring ammonia hydroxide is in the rest of my food. Seriously? Remind me again why BPI is spraying it on their meat. Oh, that's right - e-coli and other crud in the meat that could make me seriously ill. Well, so remind me why that's in there now. Is it to maximize profits or to offer me some quality food? Honestly, I'll pay a buck or two more for something above toilet-grade meat. Matter of fact, I pay even more for grass fed beef. A mile up the road I saw cows eating grass. Weird that the grass doesn't feed the e-coli in the gut like the corn does. You ever see cows grazing through a corn field? Boy does e-coli enjoy some corn. Corn is cheap and the cow doesn't have to graze. We keep it locked in a stall. Then inject enough antibiotics to keep it alive until slaughter. After that hose it down to kill e-coli. That's some progress right there my friends. Technology, industrialization and corporate greed serving up the food on your plate. And I'm sure with the profits, the fat cats will buy only the prime cuts. It's your food, and as they say, you are what you eat. Blue pill or red pill - you decide.

[littlemanhuff]

12:43 AM on 03/30/2012

Isn't the Blue Pill the one that works to keep a different kind of meat fresh?

[pointedstick]

08:46 AM on 03/29/2012

Well, if pink slime is so healthy, nutritious, and safe.. why haven't we seen a PR opportunity with all the owners, regulators, etc.. sitting down and eating a nice big bowl of cooked pink slime? It seems like a no-brainer to me, if it's safe, show me!!!

[Mother Teresa Ann]

08:11 AM on 03/29/2012

"Federal regulators say the product, which has been used for years and is known in the industry as "lean, finely textured beef," meets food safety standards"

This means those food safety standards must be VERY LOW.

I like to live in a world where I don't really know what's in the hamburger.

Gives new meaning to the old "Wendy's" comerical; "WHERE'S THE BEEF???"

[littlemanhuff]

12:51 AM on 03/30/2012

This is just one more proof that Federal Regulators are needed, more than ever.

[HazelPethigFan]

11:18 PM on 03/28/2012

so...we must protect our cheap, unhealthy meat made from less desirable cuts by eliminating cheap unhealthy filler?

um...what's next?

eliminate teeth-rotting HFCS containing 55% fructose with teeth-rotting cane sugar containing 50% fructose??? Oh wait.. the same people say that one too.

[cordyline]

01:22 AM on 03/29/2012

FYI cane sugar is real. High Fructose Corn Syrup is not. It has Fungus's genetically
modified enzymes, ion exchange and more chemical tweaking. All taking place in
one of 16 chemical plants located in the corn belt. It makes your body ravenous.
Unlike regular sugar, HFCS doesn't trigger the release of leptin, the substance that
makes you feel full and stop eating. Worst still, it does not supress the release of
ghrelin, the substance that makes you hungry. That's why you still feel hungry not
long after eating. The Dept. of Agriculture data directly links HFCS to skyrocketing
Diabetes and Obesity. Not only that but now we learn HFCS has Mercury in it.
You won't see the FDA taking it out of all the food though. People make a big
uproar over pink slime but not HFCS. Go figure.

[Morrow1701]

01:10 PM on 03/29/2012

I only use cane sugar Bcuz I live in a sugar producing state. We avoid corn syrup as much as possible, so we do without a lot of stuff, but its really not good for us anyway.... I'm glad to see you post on it, and you don't sound angry to me. Just informative. I avoid corn now unless I can get it fresh locally or grow it myself. I avoid it because it has molds & I don't know if its been genetically modified or not, but mainly to avoid the mold. Same with peppers & chiles, mold developes, so we buy locally and freeze. I think the pink slime should go back to dog food.

[ARNOST]

01:41 AM on 03/29/2012

Getting a bit Angry are you ?

[Tricia Olson Luber]

08:28 PM on 03/28/2012

“Pink slime” is a false term, in fact it doesn't exist! The proper name is Lean Finely Textured Beef or LFTB. The boneless lean beef trimmings is 100% beef that is trimmed from steaks and roasts. Beef Products, Inc. uses ammonium hydroxide, which is found naturally in the proteins we eat. We use a small amount (a “puff”)of ammonia in our process to slightly elevate the pH level of the beef in order to stop bacteria from forming. Also were any of you aware that there is more ammonium hydroxide based compounds in a hamburger bun, the condiments and the cheese then there is in the beef patty? Ammonium Hydroxide, which is basically just ammonia and water, is used in many different food products that we eat every day such as pudding, and baked goods. I encourage you all to read the facts at www.beefisbeef.com or join the Facebook groups People for the Truth and Friends of BPI.
I as a consumer and a PROUD Employee of BPI feel everyone should have the FACTS and the right to choose which types of beef they can purchase at grocery stores.

[Victoria Sylvestre]

10:27 PM on 03/28/2012

wow, i'm really glad that i have celiac disease so i don't eat baked goods, yeesh. shouldn't we as consumers completely be aware of what is in our food, learn the facts about those substances, and then be allowed to make the choices ourselves as informed citizens?

[bellasarah]

09:21 AM on 03/29/2012

There is a difference between a compound found naturally in something and a synthetic form of that compound that's been purposefully added. The only ingredient in my ground beef should be beef. Synthetic additives are a problem in ANY kind of food - not just meat. This pink slime controversy should stand as a wake up call to Americans to learn what we're eating and demand an overhaul in food production. The movie "Food Inc" really opened my eyes to how this food system is run and it's time for a change!

[Bread n Circus]

12:30 PM on 03/29/2012

Yeah luckily I don't eat any of this crp you people produce.

[beachgirlchix]

06:19 PM on 03/28/2012

Did you see the website: "beefisbeef?" Beef industry must be using the same corporate PR firm Monsanto used for their "milk is milk" propaganda to defend rBST. Neither are convincing arguments, are they? How dim do these companies think we are?

[Bread n Circus]

12:31 PM on 03/29/2012

They count on us being ignorant, apathetic sheep.

[vietveter]

04:59 PM on 03/28/2012

F D A = Fails to Do Anything

People are always trying to save money

by ''shrinking'' the government.In this case

I am all for it. I wish all the decision makers and

policy setters at the FDA had to all go on unemployment,

they do nothing now except accept graft money from the people

that make akk the crap that is secreted in our food supply. It is about

time that they did their job of protecting the public or lock the door and go home!

[Oginikwe]

02:14 AM on 03/29/2012

"Federal regulators say the product, which has been used for years and is known in the industry as "lean, finely textured beef," meets food safety standards"

That's just how low our food standards are.

[vietveter]

04:32 AM on 03/29/2012

so true . . . so sad