Pink Lime Meat } Who Killed It?


Pink slime monster runs amok

The beef product processing industry is in a world of pain. Another scalp for social media?

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  •  The beef ingredient dubbed “pink slime.”
The beef ingredient dubbed “pink slime.”  (Credit: AP/Beef Products, Inc.)
 
The battle over “pink slime” is getting messier. Blaming an “unfounded public outcry over the use of boneless lean beef trimmings” in the nation’s commercially sold ground beef supply, meat processor AFA Foods Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. Beef Products Inc. — the South Dakota-based meat titan that invented the pink slime manufacturing process — is also reeling, idling plants in multiple states. In response, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a politician who hails from a state where there is a whole lot of boneless beef extrusion going on, called for a congressional investigation into the causes of the public uproar.
“We have a smear campaign going on against a product that is healthy and safe,” Branstad said. “If they get by with this, what other food products are they going to attack next?”
 
Andrew Leonard
Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21. More Andrew Leonard
 

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