In 2012, a defamatory story about lean, finely textured beef (LFTB) aired on ABC, deriding both Beef Products Inc. (BPI) — the company that produces LFTB — and the product by calling it “pink slime.” The ABC story resulted in 750 people losing their jobs and three out of four BPI production facilities shuttering.
BPI fought back, filing a nearly $2 billion lawsuit against ABC. The landmark lawsuit settled in June 2017, when ABC paid $177 million dollars out of pocket and its insurers paid a much larger sum (according to the Chicago Tribune, among other sources). Now, almost seven years later, things are looking up for BPI and its employees. After a multi-month evaluation, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has ruled that LFTB meets the regulatory definition of ground beef under the law in 9 CFR 319.15(a) and thus may be labeled as ground beef. While it has generated some peripheral controversy and consternation, the ruling is entirely congruent with the facts.