The Sliming

The History Of Pink Slime
FILE - This undated file photo provided by Beef Products Inc., shows the company's ammonia-treated filler, known in the industry as "lean, finely textured beef," a lower-cost ingredient made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts. Acknowledging that recent public concern has cost it business, Beef Products Inc., the company that makes the beef ingredient dubbed pink slime by critics, suspended operations at three of its four plants Monday, March 26, 2012. A company spokesman said business took a substantial hit when retailers decided they no longer wanted to use the product in their ground beef. (AP Photo/Beef Products Inc.)
FILE - This undated file photo provided by Beef Products Inc., shows the company's ammonia-treated filler, known in the industry as "lean, finely textured beef," a lower-cost ingredient made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts. Acknowledging that recent public concern has cost it business, Beef Products Inc., the company that makes the beef ingredient dubbed pink slime by critics, suspended operations at three of its four plants Monday, March 26, 2012. A company spokesman said business took a substantial hit when retailers decided they no longer wanted to use the product in their ground beef. (AP Photo/Beef Products Inc.)

What do you call a mash of beef trimmings that have been chopped and then spun in a centrifuge to remove the fatty bits and gristle? According to the government and to the company that invented the process, you call it lean finely textured beef. But to the natural-food crusaders who would have the stuff removed from the nation's hamburgers and tacos, the protein-rich product goes by another, more disturbing name: Pink slime.

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