'Pink Slime' Producer Runs a Full Page Ad in the WSJ

[n2doc]

The "pink slime" saga continues: The beef product, a low-cost ammonia-treated filler aka "Lean Finely Trimmed Beef" that ends up in ground beef and hamburger patties, is having a tough time these days. After an online petition led to a media frenzy, multiple grocery stores have pledged to stop using it and schools are pulling it from cafeterias (it will be banned from public school lunches in New York City schools next Fall).

Beef Products, Inc., the self-professed "world's leading producer of lean beef processed from fresh beef trimmings," is not going to watch its business go down in social media-fueled flames, so they did what any normal company in the big trouble would do: They ran a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal (the full ad is below). There's an editorial by Nancy Donley, President, STOP Foodborne Illness talking about how ammonia hydride and food-grade antimicrobial sprays are "necessary."

Eldon Roth, CEO of BPI also gets some space. He chimes in about the "campaign of lies and deceit that have been waged" by the "entertainment media, tabloid journalists, so-called national news." He says the "misinformation campaign" may result in the "loss of over 3,000" jobs. He also says that the "lean beef" from his company has been in over 300 billion meals.

more

http://eater.com/archives/2012/03/23/pink-slime-producer-runs-full-page-ad-in-wsj.php#more

[RZM]

1. New slogan: 'It's not nearly as bad as the stuff in Ghostbusters 2' n/t

[Vanje]

11. LOL! nt

[YellowRubberDuckie]

2. If he'd sell real beef, there'd be no money or jobs lost.

He brought this on himself. The only thing he's pissed off about is the fact that his secret processing got out.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. Hey Homer Simpson loves it - "pink slime ... AHHHH gurgle gurgle gurgle"

[Celebrandil]

4. Maybe I shouldn't complain.

The parents at my son's kindergarten complain that the beef is not organic.

[MADem]

5. I think pink slime will make great pet food. Really.

I don't think it should be served to people.

You don't want e-coli? Cook your damn burger. ALL THE WAY THROUGH.

Better still, grind your own meat, and then cook your damn burger all the way through.

[lob1]

7. I think it'd make TERRIBLE pet food.

How much food value is there in ammonia treated grissle? It's not food, and I wouldn't knowingly feed it to my dog.

[MADem]

12. It's not all gristle. It's small bits of meat.

And it's probably better than the road kill, assholes and elbows that go into a lot of sketchy pet foods. How soon people forget that crap from China that killed all those dogs? I think if they'd been eating straight pink slime, poured into a can and cooked up as part of the canning process instead, they'd have lived.

I feed my dogs high end shit, but then again, it's my one small expense and I can afford it because I am a cheap so-n-so and watch my pennies. For a family struggling to make ends meet, though, a cheaper dog food is better than NO dog food at all.

If we look at things strictly from an "optimal" perspective, we are guilty of not being realistic, or worse, being elitists. Lots of poor people have pets, too, you know. I don't see many people running round offering to feed their dogs for free. They've got to do the best they can.

[ComplimentarySwine]

6. In my mind, it's not really about food-borne illness

so much as it is just that I don't wish to eat beef scraps that have been sprayed with ammonia. It doesn't sound appetizing to me, even if there's not a trace of bacteria in it.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. I'm with you. No one has said it is contaminated

with bacteria. No one has said that it will kill you.

But I think we are all pissed to learn that we have been buying "ground beef", and we find that it has additives in it that are treated with ammonia. The biggest outrage is that we THOUGHT we were buying an unadulterated product, and we were deceived.

[Demonaut]

8. I like pink slime

from watermelons
granted, it's an efficient way to use the whole animal but I just don't like processed filler

[zbdent]

9. Has to be full-force, big-time Republican supporter ...

Oh, be afraid ... trying to be healthier and identifying things are GOING TO COST JOBS!!!

[Skidmore]

13. My understanding is that the component materials of pink slime used to be reserved

for dog food.

How it made it into the human food supply deserves some explanation.