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Makers of ‘pink slime’ sue TV network

The manufacturers of the now infamous “pink slime” used in American meat products has sued ABC News in the US for defamation over its coverage of the creation.

The Dakota Dunes, South Dakota-based meat processor owned by Beef Products Inc. (BPI) is seeking $US1.2 billion ($1.14 billion) in damages over about 200 of what it calls "false and misleading and defamatory" statements about the product.

Officially, the meat product is known as lean, finely textured beef, according to Dan Webb, BPI's attorney.

The lawsuit, filed in a South Dakota state court, names several individuals as defendants, including ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer and the local Departure of Agriculture microbiologist for creating the term "pink slime."

The coining of the phrase and the subsequent reporting by the ABC "caused consumers to believe that our lean beef is not beef at all – that it's an unhealthy pink slime, unsafe for public consumption, and that somehow it got hidden in the meat," Webb said.

In the 257-page lawsuit, BPA also names American Broadcasting Companies, ABC News, and ABC correspondents Jim Avila and David Kerley as defendants.

Gerald Zirnstein, the USDA microbiologist who named the product "pink slime," Carl Custer, a former federal food scientist, and Kit Foshee, a former BPI quality assurance manager who was interviewed by ABC, are also on the defendant list.

The "defendants engaged in a month-long vicious, concerted disinformation campaign against BPI," the lawsuit claims.

In the lawsuit 11 reports that aired on television and 14 that appeared online between March 7 and April 3, are listed to support their claims.

BPI's director of food-quality assurance, Craig Letch, claims the company lost 80 per cent of its business in 28 days due to the reporting.

While some of the customers have returned, BPI still doesn't have the customer base that would allow it to rehire former employees, he said.

The company was forced it to close three of its four US plants and fire more than 650 workers due to the fallout, which was further fuelled by the ABC publishing a list of grocery stores that had stopped selling the product.

This action, he said, pressured others to end their business relationship with BPI over fear of customer backlash.

The reports created the false impression "that it's some type of chemical product, that it's not beef. It led people to believe that it's some kind of repulsive, horrible, vile substance that got put into ground beef and hidden from consumers,” he argued.

"The result of that has been catastrophic for this company," he said.

The ABC has vowed to fight the claims in court, saying it has done nothing wrong.

"The lawsuit is without merit," Jeffrey W. Schneider, ABC senior vice president, said in a brief statement on Thursday.

"We will contest it vigorously"

“Pink Slime,” or "meat glue" is made up of bits of beef are heated and treated with a small amount of ammonia to kill bacteria, a common practice used for many years.

While the processes meet federal food safety standards, many consumers were understandably shocked to see images of the product, looking highly processed and unhealthy.

After the ABC and Zirnstein coined the phrase, it spread quickly, with the The New York Times using it in a 2009 article on the safety of meat processing methods and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver publically campaigning against it.

As a result of consumer pressure, McDonald's and other fast food companies stopped using it, and major supermarket chains also said they would cease selling beef containing the product.

An online petition calling for the banning of the product from school menus drew hundreds of thousands of supporters, as parents grew increasingly concerned about the impact of the low-cost product used to make small amounts of meat go further and ensure continuity in products like hamburger patties.

Only three states in the US, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, now order beef that may contain it, while the rest refuse to use ground beef with “pink slime” in it, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

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