Posted on 09/14/2012 3:56:14 AM PDT by Carriage Hill
NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. – Beef Products Inc. sued ABC News, Inc. for defamation Thursday over its coverage of a meat product that critics dub "pink slime," claiming the network damaged the company by misleading consumers into believing it is unhealthy and unsafe.
The Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based meat processor is seeking $1.2 billion in damages for roughly 200 "false and misleading and defamatory" statements about the product officially known as lean, finely textured beef, said Dan Webb, BPI's Chicago-based attorney.
The lawsuit filed in a South Dakota state court also names several individuals as defendants, including ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer and the Department of Agriculture microbiologist who coined the term "pink slime."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Well, well...aren't 'we' just the most perfect little shopper now!?!
hey BPI, nobody wants to eat your pink slime that you scraped off the floor and off the machinery after you made the ground beef. Get it? You never should have been foisting it off on human consumers in the first place
Go gettum BPI. I hope you are successful in the lawsuit and they “offenders” have to pay BIG TIME.
That’s a fantastic quote
“The real story is pink slime is “dogfood” and is what was being fed to our children via government food programs.”
You don’t know what you’re talking about and that’s a fact.
Speak for yourself.
With the price of beef going so high that all we can afford is hamburger, I want the high quality filler that is actually meat rather than a ton of fat that cooks away.
I bought the meat grinder attachment for the wife's kitchenaide stand mixer...mostly for deer meat.
But it works great for all meat.
I dont mind the possibility of using it...but LABEL IT.
Pink slime refers to mechanically separated and disinfected beef products known in the meat industry as lean finely textured beef (LFTB)[2] and boneless lean beef trimmings (BLBT).[3] It is a processed beef product that was originally used in pet food and cooking oil.[8] In 2004 in the United States the product was approved for limited human consumption and began to be used as a food additive to ground beef and beef-based processed meats as a filler at a ratio of no more than 15 percent of any product. The production process uses heat in centrifuges to separate the fat from the meat in beef trimmings.[9] The resulting product is exposed to ammonia gas or citric acid to kill bacteria.[9][10] The product is sold in the U.S. to food companies which use it as a filler product in ground beef production. It was reported in March 2012 that approximately 70 percent of ground beef sold in U.S. supermarkets contained the additive at that time. In March 2012, ABC News ran a series of news reports about the product, which generated significant controversy and led to increased consumer concerns. Following the controversy, some companies and organizations discontinued the provision of ground beef with the additive, while others continued to provide beef with the filler.
>>Well, well...aren’t ‘we’ just the most perfect little shopper now!?! <<
LOL!!!
More power to everyone that can afford it.
I’m luck I can afford the roll of beef. Lots of bread crumbs, some egg and voila, meatloaf.
I like lots of “lean, finely textured beef” in there. It’s cheap and flavorful. In fact, we drive out to see my MIL in a Care Facility once a month. We hit McDonalds last weekend and I had a Swiss, Mushroom Burger wrap. It was dull as the day is long and rather dry. I had just had one for my birthday before this myth hit the news. They HAD been yummy.
NEVER buy “ground beef”! You don’t really know what it is.
Make your own
First of all, commercial ground beef is all too prone to contamination as it is a mixture, not a solid chunk of meat with a discernible outer surface that can be seared, washed or otherwise disinfected with vinegar or lemon juice.
The interior portion of the cut would be the least subject to attack from bacteria or other airborne pathogens.
Just get a cheap food processor from Wallyworld and using the big blade, zip out fresh ground beef in seconds. (after you’ve satisfied yourself that the exterior of the cut has been properly treated.)
Most importantly....NO PINK SLIME!
Of course, we also chucked the furnace in the morning, hung our clothes on the line and walked a mile to the public market.......Boy am I old.
AND WE HAD NO TV until I was 8. Holy cr**!
Just a note to those that “think” they are somehow doing something healthier by having their local supermarket butcher grind the meat.
Ever seen some of the folks clean up late at night? Surfaces, grinders, and all other accoutrements of meat butchering NEED to be cleaned with steaming hot water at a MINIMUM.
Check it out some night when they close up, I see common hoses just spraying water, no steam visible - which would indicate fairly mild water temps. I am not talking about some low quality places either. I have locally three of big trendy upscale grocery stores and almost without fail the cleaning is the same.
Grovery stores can be a cesspool of bacteria.
I would rather eat beans and rice than trash
I think the fact that it ABC changes the picture. BPI would not want to reveal their legal strategy.
My guess is that they will move it out of the realm of faulty reporting and into the realm of one business defaming a competing business.
The connection is this: ABC is part of the Disney Conglomerate. Disney Foods is a part of Disney. Disney Foods is a huge food delivery service. MacDonalds has entered into contractual relationship with Disney Foods, not just to market Disney characters in Happy Meals but also for sale of food at Disney locations. MacDonalds dropped BPI as a result of ABC's reporting.
Because there is a Disney Foods and a Disney Board of Directors, one could also imagine one or more sitting directors involved in the food service industry, given that these high power-levels include many who have ties to other companies and sit on various boards.
Business defamation becomes different that "media mal-reporting" if I recall correctly things I've read in the past. If BPI has found a smoking gun tie between Disney Food, MacDonalds, and BPI, then that would be the motive for the "defamation" that would be legally actionable in my mind.
Good grief. This story is all hype and hysteria. They have been using this product for decades.
It’s often referred to as “Baader” meat and it’s lean meat that was left on the bone (what couldn’t be taken off with a boning knife.
It’s 100% wholesome and actually helps the texture and consistency of ground beef when added in the proper ratio.
BTW I’ve been in the meat business for over 30 years so, unlike a few on this thread,I know what I’m talking about.
“they’ve been using this “product” for decades”
In other words, meat companies have been fooling people for decades, why stop now, eh?
“...losing against Oprah back in the 90s...”
I honestly don’t remember that; what happened?
I’m sorry....I know this is a real video...but it is NOT how you get your hamburger.
I would like to know what they are doing in this video, but guts, bones and all would immediately turn into a bacterialological stew that ones taste buds would tell one it was inedible....
Regardless, a defamation claim requires a false statment of fact made knowing it to be false or with reckless disregard of its truth of falsity which caused damages to the plaintiff. I still have not heard what the alleged false statement of fact is. (and I’m to lazy to dig up the 200+ page complaint and read it.)
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