SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — The beef-processing company that makes the product that critics call "pink slime" continues to struggle more than a year after the initial stories on the lean bits of beef that Beef Products Inc. makes.
The Sioux City Journal reports (http://bit.ly/15YXsIh ) the Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based company lost 80 percent of its business after the uproar over what BPI calls lean finely textured beef.
The meat BPI separates from trimmings with heat and treats with ammonia to kill bacteria used to be widely used in hamburger, but consumers objected to it after media reports depicted it as unsavory.
Many schools and retailers pledged to stop using BPI's products after the "pink slime" reports, and the company saw demand fall to 2 million pounds a week from the previous 5 million pounds a week.
The private company closed three of its four plants, scrapped expansion plans in South Sioux City and eliminated more than 700 jobs, which won't return soon. The plants that closed were in Waterloo, Iowa; Amarillo, Texas; and Garden City, Kansas.