Science

Kroger to No Longer Carry “Pink Slime” Beef

March 23rd, 2012

One of metro-Atlanta’s largest grocery chains has vowed to no longer carry meat with lean finely textured beef, an additive known to some as “pink slime.”

The Kroger Co. previously sold ground beef both with and without the additive and offered to help people navigate its offerings. But after getting an earful from customers, the store decided this week it will no longer carry ground beef with “pink slime.”

“There are mechanisms for Kroger customers to share their concerns, and some of that is comments to our store teams, comments on Facebook, comments on the 1-800 numbers,” says Glynn Jenkins, spokesperson for Kroger. “So we’ve had customers use a number of vehicles to express their concerns about the lean finely textured beef.”

Jenkins says it’s unclear what the impact will be on the price of ground beef, but he says Kroger will try to keep prices competitive.

Publix, another grocery store with locations in the area, says it’s never carried “pink slime” in any of its ground beef products. Brenda Reid, a spokesperson with the company, cites “quality” as the reason Publix doesn’t use the additive.

“We want to provide the highest quality that we can to our customers, so our ground beef is 93 percent lean, ground meat,” she says.

“Pink slime” consists of beef trimmings that have been heated and separated from fat. They’re then treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill bacteria and added to ground beef. The USDA supports the practice and has continued to tell consumers that the textured beef is safe to eat.

Public concerns seem to focus on two points: One being whether the meat trimmings come from cow parts more likely to be contaminated with bacteria; another stems from the safety of consuming ammonia.

Grocery stores began changing their policies after certain fast-food chains ousted the additive and the USDA decided to offer alternatives to finely textured beef for its National School Lunch Program starting next year.