Beef Products Incorporated (BPI) is seeking $1.2 billion from ABC News for defamation toward their lean beef trimmings. ABC News is calling a lean beef trimming, "Pink Slime." "Pink Slime" is described as beef trimmings that is heated then sprayed with ammonia.
The lawsuit says that in a 30 day period, the news organization made 200 false statements regarding BPI and the product. As a result, BPI saw a drop of 80 percent in sales, laid off 700 workers, and closed three plants.
Senior Vice President of ABC News, Jeffery Schneider, released a statement on Thursday saying: "The lawsuit is without merit. We will contest it vigorously."
Some local meat managers know about the lawsuit, but did not know that the "pink slime" was in their products.
"Probably a lot of meat department managers, like myself, were not aware that it was in there until this story [first] came out," said Robert Lynn, meat department manager of Boogaarts Grocery.
Officials report that 70% of the ground beef we buy at the grocery contains the "pink slime" material. Former USDA Secretary of Agriculture, Joanne Smith, gave the okay to sell this meat. By doing so, hundreds of millions of dollars went into the pockets of BPI all because Smith agreed that "it's pink; therefore, it's meat."
