Ground beef producers are hoping the summer grilling season will provide a bounce-back from customer revolt this spring over a product dubbed "pink slime" but known in the beef industry as "lean, finely textured beef."
Minneapolis-based Cargill, which produces 1.5 billion pounds of ground beef annually and is the nation's largest producer, saw 80% of its customers for finely textured beef disappear after the controversy erupted in March, company spokesman Mike Martin said. And AFA Foods of King Prussia, Pa., sought bankruptcy protection.
The controversy over the filler, which is made of fatty bits of beef that are heated and treated with ammonia hydroxide to kill bacteria, showed how a simple nickname could change an entire industry. It had been used within the industry for about a decade before the public became broadly aware of it last spring.
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