"Pink slime" maker BPI suspends operations at 3 plants amid outcry
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(CBS/AP) Is it "so long" for "pink slime"? Beef Products Inc (BPI), the company that makes the chemical-treated meat trimmings behind the nation's ground beef brouhaha, is suspending operations at three of its four plants as officials hope to address the public outcry.
BPI will suspend operations at plants in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kan.; and Waterloo, Iowa, according to Craig Letch, the company's director of food safety and quality assurance. The company's plant at its Dakota Dunes, S.D., headquarters will continue operations.
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"We feel like when people can start to understand the truth and reality then our business will come back," Letch said. "It's 100 percent beef."
About 200 employees at each of the three BPI plants will get full salary and benefits for 60 days during the suspension, Letch said.
The plant in Amarillo produced about 200,000 pounds a day, while the Kansas and Iowa plants each produced about 350,000 pounds a day.
Federal regulators say the ammonia-treated filler, known in the industry as "lean, finely textured beef," meets food safety standards. But critics say the product could be unsafe and is an unappetizing example of industrialized food production.
The low-cost ingredient is made from left over fatty bits of from other cuts. The bits are heated and spun to remove most of the fat, then the lean mix 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? A product that is as much as 97 percent lean beef, Letch said.
The product has been used for years, but it wasn't until earlierthis month that social media suddenly exploded with worry and an online petition seeking its ouster from schools garnered hundreds of thousands of supporters. The USDA decided to allow school districts to stop using it and some retail chains have pulled products containing it from their shelves.
Grocery stores owned by Supervalu, Food Lion and Safeway Inc., Kroger Co., BJ's Wholesale Club among others announced they would no longer stock meat containing pink slime, HealthPop reported. Wal-Mart says it will have new products in stores as quickly as possible, and that its meat department and customer service staffers will tell customers who inquire about the new meat offerings. Other companies including Target and Whole Foods released statements saying their stores have never contained the products.
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If pink slime is safe and non-toxic as claimed, then what does the food industry have to hide? Again, they have my blessing to come up with a different name for pink slime, as long as it is unambiguous, and used consistently.
Sol: Ah, people were always lousy... But there was a world, once.
[Thorn chuckles]
Sol: I was there, I can prove it! When I was a kid, you could buy meat anywhere! Eggs they had, real butter! Not this... crap!
Det. Thorn: It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people. They're making our food out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!
Hatcher: I promise, Tiger. I promise. I'll tell the exchange.
Det. Thorn: You tell everybody. Listen to me, Hatcher. You've gotta tell them! Soylent Green is people! We've gotta stop them somehow!
[Announcer doing a commercial announcement]
Richard: ...is brought to you by Soylent red and Soylent yellow, high energy vegetable concentrates, and new, delicious, Soylent green. The miracle food of high-energy plankton gathered from the oceans of the world.
Elected government officials and their tax paid appointees better right a wrong by starting with this glaring transgression.
National health concerns and priorities must be uncontaminated by greed and sleaze protected by a charade.
Pink slime represents all that's wrong with lobbying and wicked political policy power in America. Time for people power to say no to any more slime of any type.
Classic shameful example of habitual, unscrupulous law enacted or government policy approved or allowed to go unchecked which lawfully permits a repugnant product or corrupt process to once again secure big profits for influential cronies in industry or special interest sectors. Rich get richer off backs of common taxpayer or consumer.
Immediately ban by transparent contemporary law "pink slime" and all similar deceptions with USDA food inspection or FDA certification process.
Anything less than a total ban overtly endorses, perpetuates, conspires or aids and abets this blatant political cover up crime against government integrity and consumer decency.
Voters take note!