"Pink slime" outcry causes Beef Products Inc. to close three plants

Craig Letch, director of food quality and assurance for Beef Products Inc. (BPI), left, introduces the beef product known as "pink slime" or lean finely textured beef, and the cuts from which it is made to, from left: Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, South Dakota Lt. Gov. Matt Michels and Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy, during a tour Thursday, March 29, 2012, of the Beef Products Inc.'s plant in South Sioux City, Neb., where the beef product is made.

/ AP Photo/Nati Harnik

(CBS/AP) Beef Products Inc. (BPI), the embattled company behind the meat product colorfully dubbed "pink slime" will shutter processing plants in three states this month because of the controversy surrounding it, a company official said Monday.

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About 650 jobs will be lost when the plants close on May 25 in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kansas; and Waterloo Iowa, company spokesman Rich Jochum said. A plant in South Sioux City, Neb., will remain open but run at reduced capacity.

The South Dakota-based company blamed the closures on what it said were unfounded attacks over its lean, finely textured beef. The product is a low-cost ingredient in ground beef made from fatty left over meat trimmings from other cuts. The bits are heated to about 100 F and spun to remove most of the fat, compressed into blocks for use in ground meat, and then exposed to "a puff of ammonium hydroxide gas" to kill bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella.

BPI suspended operations at the three plants in March amid public uproar over the filler, HealthPop reported. 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.

BPI has declined to discuss financial details, but said it took a "substantial" hit after social media exploded with worry over the product and a petition seeking its ouster from schools drew hundreds of thousands of supporters.

The USDA has decided that school districts may stop using it, and some retail chains have pulled products containing it from store shelves, including chains under Safeway Inc., Kroger Co., and Stop & Shop.

Company officials had hoped to recover but have since realized that doing so wasn't possible in the near future, Jochum said Monday. The company paid its workers during the suspension.

"We will continue communicating the benefits of BPI's lean beef, but that process is much more difficult than (countering) the campaign to spread misinformation that brought us to this point," Jochum said in a statement.

State executives who have supported the company blamed what they considered a smear campaign against the product, which has drawn scrutiny even though they and industry officials insist that it's safe.

"This is a sad day for the state of Iowa," said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad. "The fact that a false, misleading smear campaign can destroy a company's reputation overnight should disturb us all."

The Republican governor said workers will "go home to their families and will soon be without a job, all because some media on the coasts decided to unfairly and viciously smear the product they so proudly produced."

The phrase "pink slime," coined by a federal microbiologist, has appeared in the media at least since a critical 2009 New York Times report. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has railed against it, and it made headlines after McDonald's and other major chains discontinued using the product.

But a recent piece by The Daily on the USDA's purchase of meat that included "pink slime" for school lunches touched a nerve with a Texas blogger who focuses on kids' food. She started an online petition asking USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to halt its use in school food, and the USDA will give schools the option of choosing ground beef that doesn't contain it starting in the fall.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman called the plant closings "unfortunate and needless," and said the product BPI produced is safe for consumption.

"BPI is a good family-owned business, and we will continue to work with them in an effort to continue to promote their safe and healthy beef," Heineman said.

Several politicians who toured one of the plants in March - including Branstad, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy and South Dakota Lt. Gov. Matt Michels- all agreed with the industry view that the beef has been unfairly maligned and mislabeled, CBS News reported.

The public backlash against the product offers an important lesson to other food makers in the social-media age, said Marion Nestle, a nutrition and food-studies professor at New York University. She noted that past food controversies, such as criticism of trans fats, took years to surface as major public issues, whereas social media enabled the campaign against "pink slime" to quickly attract widespread public attention.

Nestle also said BPI misinterpreted the public concern as a food-safety issue, instead of recognizing that critics were focused on not knowing what was added to their food and the belief that they were deceived.

"It's always sad when people are put out of work," Nestle said. "But this company, they could have handled the whole situation differently. ... They were faced with a public relations disaster of really astonishing proportions."

[jess3a3]

Beef is speeding up Human Extinction. It takes 2500 gallons of water for 1 pound of beef vs 25 for 1 pound potatoes. On 2.5 acres You can feed 22 people on potatoes or 1 person on beef.

[trekie70]

This is what happens when people believe everything they hear without checking for themselves. Americans have fully succumbed to the Chicken Little mentality. Now 650 additional people are jobless. There is nothing wrong with beef trimmings. Considering the obesity rate resulting from poor diets, I would think eating burgers made from beef trimmings would be a pretty low priority. Would it not be a better use of time and effort to educate people on how to eat healthy?

[davewk2002]

Do you really think that the FDA serves pink slime and genetically modified vegies at its potluck dinners?

[tmittelstaed]

Many people would buy this if it was PRICED CHEAPER than regular ground beef. Many poor people would rather eat this beef than no beef at all. Once it's cooked into a hamburger you can't tell the difference anyway. A real beef conniseur would never eat a hamburger anyway.

[MegaProcrastination]

The owners of BPI need to figure out a way to adapt to the repercussions of people not wanting their product. Quit complaining and figure out a way to keep those plants open and the people employed. I know many companies that had to either close down or adapt but the owners wanted to stay in business enough to make the adjustments and often end up being more profitable than they were originally.

I just had a "duh" moment. They talk about how this stuff keeps the price of ground beef down. I just realized what a crock that is. Ground beef with "pink slime" has a much higher shrinkage rate than that without. I can spend $15 on a box of slime-burgers from Wally Mart or spend $25 on the same weight of non-slime-burger at Costco. After they're cooked, the patties from Costco are so much larger than the ones from WalMart that the extra cooked weight more than makes up for the additional $10 they cost. It's the same way with the slimey chubs compared to the meat I get from the little grocer in our town. Although we may pay more per pound (hardly ever happens since I usually pick up a couple of cases from the local store when it's on sale for $2.50 a pound) we save money because after it's cooked there's more left to eat.

[irreverentasever]

If they would change the name to Pink Tea Party Republicans I'm sure it would be more palatable.

[stirringitup]

What BPI cannot defend is thier relentless fight to prevent labeling of products containing pink slime. If it is so great and people will enjoy food with this filler why hide this fact. Also I find it interesting that no famous cooks have endorsed the use of pink slime in beef products.....why not? And the politicians supporting BPI should have a hanburger made of 100% pink slime and eat it for the cameras.....not simply tour a plant and glance at the production and give empty speeches

[rwsmith29456]

Will cost jobs? People don't need to be making this crap. Since it's a cheaper alternative it will surely end up in food. I'll bet it's already in institutional food like my son's school. Quality is a last consideration with cheap at the front.