“Pink Slime” Forces Leading US Beef Processor to File Bankruptcy

“Pink Slime” Forces Leading US Beef Processor to File Bankruptcy

AFA Foods, a US leading ground-beef processor, was forced to file for bankruptcy protection on Monday, blaming media of dubbing one of its products "pink slime."

The company said it was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection "given recent changes in the market for its ground beef products and the impact of media coverage related to Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings (BLBT)."

AFA Foods, based in Pennsylvania and is one of the nation’s largest ground beef processors, said in a statement that the company had filed for bankruptcy protection because "the best way to preserve value for its stakeholders is through an orderly sale of some or all of its assets."

BLBT is produced from beef trimmings used in cooking oil and pet food and is treated with a very small amount of ammonia to eliminate e. coli bacteria. The finely-textured, lean beef is usually added to ground meat, like hamburger, as a cheaper filler.

Last month, wide public uproar about what is dubbed as "pink slime" forced the US Department of Agriculture to leave the decision to schools — public or private - to decide if they would use the controversial ground-beef filler or “pink slime” in the foods they serve to students.

USDA recently purchased 7 million pounds (3.6 million kilograms) of “pink slime” and encouraging more than 250,000 consumers to sign an online petition to demand the cease of using it in school meals.

A lot of fast-food chains, like McDonald's, have declared they would stop using the lean finely textured beef in their burgers.

AFA Foods’ declaration of bankruptcy would clearly affect its 7 production facilities and its workforce of more than 1,000 employees.

Posted by James Fried on Tuesday April 03 2012, 2:45 AM EST. Ref: Reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Finance. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0