Meet Meat: Pink Slime by Mike Levine

“Pink Slime”, or lean finely textured beef (LFTB), is an inexpensive beef-based food additive this is added to ground beef and processed beef meats as filler. The contents of “pink slime” include finely ground beef scraps, fat, sinew, and connective tissues. It is treated with ammonia gas or citric acid to kill salmonella, E. coli, and other forms of bacteria. Its manufacturer, Beef Products Incorporated (BPI), have argued that their product is legit and in fact beef, coining the slogan “beef is beef”. “Pink Slime” is also produced and sold by Cargill Meat Solutions and Tyson Foods.
Gerald Zirnstein, a microbiologist for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service, first used the term “pink slime” to describe the paste in 2002. Zirnstein, stated in an email released in a 2009 investigative piece by the New York Times “I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I consider allowing the use of it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.” The email was written after Zirnstein toured a BPI plant.
In March of 2012, ABC News broke a story reporting that 70% of ground beef sold in United States supermarkets contained “pink slime”. Ever since the story broke, three of the most popular chains announced that they would no longer sell products containing the additive.
Since the onslaught of negative press, many have come to BPI’s defense. Keith Nunes, executive editor of Food Business News says “Negative publicity about the company’s process and the use of the compound ammonium hydroxide, a critical component of the process, is at the heart of Beef Products’ recent challenges. This is distressing, because ammonium hydroxide was designated as ‘generally recognized as safe’ for use in food by the Food and Drug Administration in 1974 and it has been used as a leavening agent in baked foods as well as a way to manage the pH in many types of food products since then. In 2001, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the regulatory arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that regulates the U.S. meat and poultry industry, approved the use of ammonium hydroxide as a food safety tool”. USDA Chief Tom Vilsack held a press conference to defend BPI and their product and stated “This product is safe. There’s no question about it. We’ve said that repeatedly and we’ll continue to say it”.
If the use of “pink slime” in beef is so safe then why is it not permitted in Canada or the United Kingdom? Health Canada states “Ammonia is still not permitted in Canada to be used in ground beef or meats during their production.” The European Union has also banned the use of “pink slime”. What is truly controversial is that, in the United States, beef can be labeled as “100% ground beef” even if the product contains up to 15%”pink slime”. Currently in the U.S., if a product contains a USDA organic label, that is the only indication that it contains no “pink slime”.
Since the ABC News story, many food wholesalers and retailer have begun labeling their beef products “pink slime-free.” However, BPI thinks there is no need for such labeling. “Why should we label it? It’s 100% beef, [why] do you want us to label it? I’m not prepared to say it’s anything other than beef, because it’s 100% beef” a spokesperson for BPI stated. The USDA’s Elisabeth A. Hagen stated that “the process used to produce LFTB is safe and has been used for a very long time. And adding LFTB to ground beef does not make that ground beef any less safe to consume.”
According to the pro-pink slime website www.beefisbeef.com, launched by BPI on March 9th, 2012, 90% Lean Beef Trimmings and 90% USDA ground beef have almost identical nutritional value. While there are some similarities in the nutrition facts I will also note some differences, particularly in the area of sodium. There is 75 mg of sodium in LFBT and 140 mg in USDA ground beef.
In 2010 Bettina Siegel, a lawyer, freelance writer, and mother of two formulated a petition on www.change.org that has reached over a quarter million signatures to ban the use of “pink slime” in public school cafeterias. Her efforts proved to be successful; as of April 11th, 2012 several Texas school districts have announced plans to discontinue the use of “pink slime” in their lunchrooms. These include the Socorro Independent School District (SISD) and the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD). Renee DeSantos, spokeswoman for the EPISD stated “The ground beef that EPISD will be receiving from the USDA next school year will not contain lean finely textured beef. Also, we will be purchasing ground beef from local vendors”. Daniel Escobar, spokesman for the SISD “Pink slime is not in any of our beef products”.
The recent reports have definitely affected the meat industry tremendously. BPI announced on March 22nd of this year that they would suspend operations at three of its four plants. The three plants produced approximately 900,000 pounds of the product every day! Iowa Governor Terry Branstad stated on March 28th that “The problem is, we take this off the market, then we end up with a fatter product that’s going to cost more and it’s going to increase the obesity problem in this country. Safeway and other retailers that have removed pink slime from their shelves or product lines have stated they will not raise the price of their beef”. On the issue of “pink slime” use in public school cafeterias, Branstad stated he plans to “send a letter to the state’s public schools, encouraging them to continue to buy LFTB”.
Several retailers and manufacturers such as ConAgra Foods Incorporated, Sara Lee, Kraft, Costco, Whole Foods, and Fresh and Easy have publicly stated they do not sell products containing “pink slime”. Wal-Mart and Sam’s club have announced plans to offer pink slime-free meat but have yet to take products containing the additive off their shelves.
As for restaurants, such fast food chains as Burger King, Taco Bell, and McDonalds announced in 2012 that they would soon discontinue the use of BPI products in their foods. Wendy’s ran a full-page newspaper ad in eight publications including the New York Times, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times stating that they have never used “pink slime”. A spokesperson for Wendy’s was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying, “We have never used lean finely textured beef (pink slime) because it doesn’t meet our high quality standards”. Popular burger joint Five Guys also confirmed that “We do not have pink slime in our ground beef. We use 80/20 ground chuck. Our manufacturers do not use ammoniated procedures”. On April 4th, 2012 restaurant Red Robin conducted a survey and found that 88% of U.S. adults are aware of “pink slime”, with 76% of those aware being “at least somewhat concerned” and 30% “extremely concerned”. Also, Red Robin stated that they have “never purchased or served beef containing the so-called ‘pink slime’”.
It is no surprise to me that one of the nation’s largest ground beef processers, AFA Foods has had to file for bankruptcy protection due to the “recent changes in the market”. In documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, the company is said to produce 500 million pounds of ground beef products annually. AFA, which is owned by the Los Angeles-based private equity firm Yucaipa Cos., and basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson, has approximately 850 full-time employees and is based out of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The company also has plants in California, New York, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Texas. It posted annual revenue of $958 million as of December 2011. To conserve cash and cut unneeded processing capacity under current market conditions, AFA plans to shut down the California plant and intends to lay off several employees. Ronald Allen, interim chief executive of AFA Foods stated “An orderly sale through Chapter 11 will unlock value and provide a smooth transition for employees, customers and other business partners”. ABC News has reported that the company has secured $56 million in financing to continue operating during the bankruptcy process.
Comedy Central’s The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart even has something to say regarding the pink slime controversy. He found it quite ironic that fast food chain McDonald’s vowed to stop selling burgers containing the product. “McDonald’s doesn’t think it’s an appropriate thing to eat? These are the people who molded a pork disc into a rib-shaped sandwich … that contains no ribs. Nobody knows how they did it! But this stuff, pink slime? That’s too fake for McDonald’s?”
There is no doubt in my mind that the Diane Sawyer report on ABC News has definitely affected the beef industry negatively. This isn’t the first time that television programming has been harmful to the beef industry. In 1996 the topic on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show was “Dangerous Foods” and one element discussed was mad cow disease and how it had led to the deaths of several people in Great Britain who consumed contaminated meat due to the cattle being fed protein supplements produced from the wastes of slaughtered cattle. Oprah declared she would immediately stop eating hamburgers. After the show there was a significant decline in cattle prices and it’s speculated that consumers were cutting down on their purchases of beef. Winfrey’s candid remarks outraged the cattle industry and even brought on a major lawsuit which was in litigation for six years! Oprah responded to the controversy by stating “I am speaking as one concerned consumer for millions of others. Cows eating cows is alarming”. “Americans needed and wanted to know that. I certainly did.” She also stated that “We think we were fair. I asked questions that I think that the American people deserve to have answered in light of what is happening in Britain. We gave them a chance to respond”. In 2002 U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson threw out all claims and causes of action asserted or that could have been asserted by Cactus Feeding Club Inc. and against Winfrey, HARPO Productions, and by vegetarian activist Howard Lyman. Winfrey spent close to one million dollars during the six year trial. Upon exiting the courthouse she exclaimed “Free speech rocks!”
Free speech does rock and it surely has rocked the beef industry!