USDA Grants New Label for BPI Beef Product

(DAKOTA DUNES, SD) Beef Products Inc., also known as BPI, can now call its lean finely textured beef (LFTB) product ground beef. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) reviewed a submission from BPI regarding changes in its production process to produce raw beef products which led to the reconsideration of the label. BPI pointed out that the new label did not result from a reclassification of its former product but from federal recognition of improvements in the company’s processing. In 2001, USDA approved the product for human consumption. A 2012 ABC News series about “pink slime” included claims that approximately 70% of ground beef sold in U.S. supermarkets contained the additive at that time. Due to negative media attention, BPI closed facilities in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kansas; and Waterloo, Iowa. The company filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC for false claims about the product and the two settled out of court five years later for at least $177 million. Though FSIS still recognizes LFTB, that label no longer applies to BPI’s product.