TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Label Pink Slime!

The fallout from the consumer backlash to so-called “pink slime”
continues to hurt meat sales. Now, some companies are taking steps to
label the product they call “lean, finely textured beef” in hopes that
they can earn back consumer trust.

Tyson
and Cargill, two multinational firms that sell ground beef containing
the processed trimmings, say they have submitted labeling requests to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture in hopes that some customers will
feel better about buying ground beef containing LFTB if it’s labeled.

“The
number of customers requesting non-LFTB product increased substantially
following the media’s inaccurate portrayal of LFTB, but we have
recently seen an increased interest in purchasing ground beef containing
LFTB as customers and consumers gain access to more accurate
information,” Tyson spokesman Worth Sparkman tells The Salt in an email
statement.

But it’s not clear that labeling LFTB can save Beef Products Inc. The South Dakota beef processor was forced to close three plants last month after retailers and a government school lunch program backed away from its product.

The consumer push to remove LFTB from the food supply was largely motivated by safety concerns. One petition noted that in 2009,

The New York Timesreported that government and industry records showed testing had found

E. coli
and salmonella pathogens in Beef Product’s trimmed meat product. Other
opponents of “pink slime” say the industry’s use of ammonium hydroxide
to kill pathogens in the beef trimmings is a turn-off.

Current
food safety and disclosure rules don’t require ground beef labels to
list LFTB as an ingredient. The USDA says that LFTB is not listed on
labels because the material is still beef.

But
USDA spokesman Dirk Fillpot says that recently, it received the
first-ever applications from several companies who want to “clarify the
use of [LFTB]” — which, Fillpot notes, is still “lean, safe and
nutritious.”

Even so, attorney Andra Greene,
who has litigated class-action lawsuits on food transparency and
labeling claims, says she understands why consumers have felt misled by
the stance that LFTB is just beef.

“While
it’s made out of scraps and that may be literally true, it’s certainly
not what you’re thinking of when you’re buying ground beef,” says
Greene, a partner at Irell & Manella LLP. “So it’s inherently
deceptive, even though the government has said it was OK.”

Others who are concerned about how the revelations about LFTB have shaken consumer confidence in meat agree.

“Transparency,
knowledge and choice — that is what consumers need in their spending
decisions,” Chris Petersen, a farmer and president of Iowa Farmers
Union, told the Food Democracy Now blog.

But
there’s no sign yet of when the labels will appear on ground beef
products; both the industry and USDA say they’re still in the
application stage.

As for the
objections to the use of ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens in LFTB,
USDA says it considers the chemical a “processing aid,” not an additive.
And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deemed ammonium hydroxide as a “generally recognized as safe” substance in 1974.

Moreover,
according to FDA spokesman Douglas Karas, there isn’t much ammonia left
once the hamburger has reached the plate. “When ammonium hydroxide is
heated, as it would be in the case of baking or cooking, it would break
down into ammonia gas and water,” Karas says in an email. “The ammonia
should be expelled as gas. … So, in practicality, it wouldn’t be in a
final baked or cooked product.”