ABC News Slapped With $1.2B Lawsuit Over ‘Pink Slime’

Beef Products, Inc., the maker of lean, finely textured beef (LFTB) dubbed “pink slime" by the media and critics of its use, has filed a $1.2 billion defamation lawsuit against ABC News alleging the network misled U.S. consumers to believe the use of boneless lean beef trimmings in processed meat is unhealthy and unsafe.

Additional defendants include ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer; ABC correspondents Jim Avila and David Kerley; former USDA microbiologists Carl Custer and Gerald Zirnstein; and Kit Foshee, the former corporate quality assurance manager at BPI credited as the whistleblower of the story.

According to the complaint filed in the Circuit Court of South Dakota, “Defendants knowingly and intentionally published nearly 200 false and disparaging statements regarding BPI and its product, lean finely textured beef (“LFTB"). Defendants engaged in a month-long vicious, concerted disinformation campaign against BPI, companies that produced a safe, nutritious beef that has lowered the cost of lean ground beef sold to consumers for nearly 20 years."

LFTB is a food additive, approved for use by USDA, is created by combining boneless lean beef trimmings, heating them to remove most of the fat, and treating them with ammonia hydroxide gas to kill potentially dangerous bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella.

On March 7, 2012, ABC World News aired a report that examined the use of LFTB and interviewed former USDA scientist Gerald Zirnstein who claimed he coined the term “pink slime" and warned USDA against its use. He went on to say 70% of the ground beef consumers purchase at retail contain the alleged “pink slime."

The complaint alleges that" between March 7 and April 3, 2012, ABC aired 11 broadcasts attacking BPI and LFTB. Defendants supplemented the broadcasts with 14 online reports and numerous social media postings. Over these 28 days, Defendants knowingly or recklessly made nearly 200 false, defamatory, and disparaging statements regarding BPI and LFTB."

Media attention fueled public outcry about the use of the filler. Its ripple effect was strong: retailers and foodservice companies vowed to discontinue using LFTB, Congress waded into the murky debate over the use of beef products containing LFTB with the introduction of The Requiring Easy and Accurate Labeling of Beef Act (REAL Beef Act) that would require any beef containing "finely textured ground beef" to have a label at the final point of sale; and USDA bowed to public pressure and told schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to opt out of purchasing ground beef products with the additive.

In May, the Dakota Dunes, S.D., company announced it would permanently shutter operations in three of its four operating plants because the company could not recover from the media frenzy that resulted in decreased consumer demand for its product. Approximately 650 jobs were lost when operations stopped on May 25 in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kansas; and Waterloo Iowa. A plant in South Sioux City, Neb., remains open, but runs at reduced capacity.

The American Meat Institute has defended BLBT saying: “Boneless lean beef trimmings (BLBT) is a safe, wholesome and nutritious form of beef that is made by separating lean beef from fat. To make the product, beef companies use beef trimmings, the small cuts of beef that remain when larger cuts are trimmed down. These trimmings are USDA inspected, wholesome cuts of beef that contain both fat and lean and are nearly impossible to separate using a knife. When these trimmings are processed, the process separates the fat away and the end result is nutritious, lean beef. It’s a process similar to separating cream from milk."