"Pink slime" is back. With beef prices hitting record highs and ground beef prices up 17 percent since last year, makers of the product the beef industry calls "finely textured beef" are seeing a higher demand for their relatively inexpensive product, Brad Cooper reports for The Kansas City Star.
Steve Kay, publisher of Cattle Buyers Weekly, told Cooper, “The fallout over the media furor has died down. Now that the emotion is out of it, [consumers] realize the product always was and still is a perfectly legitimate beef product,” which at one time was in 70 percent of ground beef sold in the U.S.
Controversy in March 2012 over the product cost the beef industry profits, was blamed for the closure of three plants and resulted in a lawsuit filed by Beef Products, the leading user, against ABC News. Beef Products said it has seen an increase in sales recently but wouldn't give specific numbers because of the ongoing lawsuit, while Cargill, whose sales of the product dropped 80 percent immediately after the controversy, reports that sales are now only down 40 percent, Cooper writes.
Steve Kay, publisher of Cattle Buyers Weekly, told Cooper, “The fallout over the media furor has died down. Now that the emotion is out of it, [consumers] realize the product always was and still is a perfectly legitimate beef product,” which at one time was in 70 percent of ground beef sold in the U.S.
Controversy in March 2012 over the product cost the beef industry profits, was blamed for the closure of three plants and resulted in a lawsuit filed by Beef Products, the leading user, against ABC News. Beef Products said it has seen an increase in sales recently but wouldn't give specific numbers because of the ongoing lawsuit, while Cargill, whose sales of the product dropped 80 percent immediately after the controversy, reports that sales are now only down 40 percent, Cooper writes.
1 comment:
If they would just label this stuff, I think nobody would care.
I don't like companies who cut corners presenting them as "lower prices." It's not what consumers expect when they are buying ground beef (I think most people assume this type of meat is in bologna and hot dogs.)
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