'Pink slime' reports weren't new

Sunday, June 3, 2012

The American meat industry claims a series of controversial reports on ABC television news prompting the "pink slime" beef crisis were unfair and inaccurate. But ABC was not the first media outlet to question the safety of products made by Beef Products Inc. of North Dakota.

On Dec. 31, 2009, The New York Times reported on concerns about the safety of Lean Finely Textured Beef, and the now controversial ammonia treatment Beef Products said killed pathogens.  The Times reported that U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials were so confident of Beef Products' process that it was exempted from routine testing imposed on other meat used in hamburger sold to the general public.

However, meat is tested separately for the USDA school lunch program and the Times reported that "E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products' meats, challenging claims by the company and the USDA about the effectiveness of the treatment.

"In July (of 2009), school lunch officials temporarily banned their hamburger makers from using meat from a Beef Products facility in Kansas because of salmonella – the third suspension in three years, yet the facility remained approved by the USDA for other customers."

After a series of controversial reports on ABC, three Beef Products plants closed and packers cut prices because of reduced margins. Supermarkets and fast food chains have promised to drop hamburger with the controversial product in it. Kansas State University economist Glynn Tonsor predicts it will be August before the market recovers. BF