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TAMPA, Florida (WFLA) – A finely textured beef product that critics have called "pink mud" can now legally be classified as ground beef, reports WGBH.
In 2012, ABC News aired a presentation that presented the "pink slime" to the public for the first time. According to the report, "pink loam" was present in 70% of the ground beef sold in supermarkets but was not labeled. After the broadcast, several grocery stores stopped shipping the product. South Dakota meat producer Beef Products Inc. said it was forced to close three factories and lay off about 700 workers as a result of the report. They sued ABC News in 2012 for defamation, claiming that network coverage was misleading to consumers. The lawsuit was settled in 2017 for $ 177 million, according to Quartz.
"Pink slime" is made from remnants of beef filling that have been separated, dried and freeze-dried into blocks to be added to the ground beef by the processors. It has existed since 1994 and has been classified as an acceptable additive or filler for ground beef. But advances in meat processing now make it possible to process more cows.
"We can take 100% of our lean ground beef and make a patty and taste it for another commercially available ground beef," said Craig Letch, Washington Times sales manager. "We demonstrated that there was no difference."
The reclassification of the product by the USDA was based on a review of the company's processing and production facilities in Dakota City, Nebraska.
A USDA representative told the newspaper that the agency still recognized "finely textured lean beef" as a category, but that this label no longer applies to "pink slime".
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