Beef processor files for bankruptcy over 'pink slime' uproar

[Ian David]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Ground beef processor AFA Foods filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday and said it plans to sell some or all of its assets, citing the impact of media coverage related to a meat filler critics have dubbed "pink slime."

Meat processors have faced a backlash over the use of an ammonia-treated beef filler they call "finely textured beef." Food activists have campaigned to have it banned arguing the product was unappetizing, but supporters say the product is safe to eat.

AFA is one of the largest ground beef processors in the United States and produces more than 500 million pounds of ground beef products annually, the company said in documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

The company sells its retail products, which include frozen hamburgers, ready ground beef and beef skillet mix, under the brand names "Moran's" and "Miller Quality Meats."


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/02/us-afafoods-bankruptcy-idUSBRE8310HX20120402

[izquierdista]

1. miller quality?

As in the miller puts his quality oat bran, wheat hulls, and ground corn cobs into the product?

[wordpix]

2. Moran's? Their motto: "Only morans eat pink slime beef"

[rhett o rick]

3. I believe this is the tip of the iceberg.

What do they put in deli turkey?

[Robb]

4. 850 more jobs sacrificed to scientific illiteracy and delicate sensibilities.

...Unreal.

[randome]

10. Agree with you in principle that emotions obviously trump reality in this case.

But a little business sense to make the product look more 'user friendly' could have alleviated much of this.

[iemitsu]

23. the reality is that people do not want to eat pink slime.

no amount of telling us it is safe to eat will change that.
sterilizing anything might make it "safe to eat" but it does not make it nutritious or a healthy choice.

[randome]

52. I know they don't.

I don't even know if it IS nutritious or not. I just wanted to point out that many people were reacting to the term 'pink slime' -a media term- without bothering to learn anything else about it.

And the company might have at least colored it differently. Or mixed it differently. Or something.

But those are all moot points now.

[LanternWaste]

13. Upton Sinclair wrote of those "delicate sensibilities" so often trivialized.

In his novel, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair too wrote of those "delicate sensibilities" so often trivialized.

"They use everything about the hog except the squeal." Chapter 3, pg. 38

[Robb]

17. To even make the comparison speaks to the scientific illiteracy part.

Here's a question for you: how much ammonia do you think is present in untreated beef?

[leftyohiolib]

20. what scientific illiteracy are u talking about ?

i could taste it in the mcdonalds double cheese burgers and couldnt stomach it. i wouldnt call that a case of "delicate sensibilities" it was digusting and i wouldnt buy it. the stuff is so suceptible to infection it has to be bathed in ammonia. ammonia is a poison why would i want to give it to my child? what scientific illiteracy

[Robb]

24. You're demonstrating my point.

Ammonia gas, which is used under high pressure to alter the pH of meat to make it less likely for pathogens to survive, is not the same as ammonium hydroxide -- ammonia dissolved in water, the cleaning liquid you imagine is involved.

It is similar to refusing to eat sodium chloride because it contains the same "stuff" as Clorox.

[leftyohiolib]

29. salt is not chlorine. putting ammonia in beef is more like dipping french fries in bleach

but youre correct in stating that regarding this process in am under-informed but i dont think your NaCl comparison is as accurate as the bleach analogy i stated. salt enhances flavor ammonia is a poison and leaves traces of itself in the food
bottom line (for me anyway)is i could taste it i used to eat alot of mcd's dbl cheeseburgers and it got to the point where i could no longer stomach them i told my wife there's something wrong with these and i can no longer eat them and gave them up. months later i found out they stopped using this stuff and now theyre delicious again.

[Snake Alchemist]

45. Sounds like a hormonal imbalance. nt

[eppur_se_muova]

40. Ammonium hydroxide is actually a misleading term -- it's basically ammonia dissolved in water.

Only a tiny trace of actual NH₄⁺OH^- is formed at equilibrium. (K~~10^-10)

The instant ammonia gas contacts water -- as in wet beef -- it dissolves, so it is a quibble that the ammonia is added as a gas and not a solution.

The distinction between ammonia gas and aqueous ammonia solution (aka ammonium hydroxide) is not particularly relevant here. As soon as it contacts the beef it is aqueous ammonia. This could not be more different from the distinction between chloride and hypochlorite, which are in different oxidation states.

[wordpix]

49. you may know chemistry, but I know I don't want to eat ammonium hydroxide

[harmonicon]

25. +1

... but the rich, adorable Englishman said we shouldn't eat it!!

[katsy]

26. People have the right to choose.

As safe as pink slime may be, people have the right to not eat what they don't want to eat. End of story.

People have a right to know what is in their food and refuse to purchase any thing that grosses them out. They have the right to refuse to pay for a product even for NO reason at all. Customer's money. Customer's body. Their decision. Science plays no part in this. If science should play a part in this, give a good reason why I shouldn't eat grandma.

The jobs sacrificed are not the fault of customers who refuse an unappetizing product. It's the fault of the company management alone. Now that they've declared bankruptcy, they'll screw over their vendors and lenders paying out like 10 cents on the dollar of debt and voila! Everyone got screwed except the management team whose stupidity produced a product they thought customers would WANT to eat. They are at fault, no one else. Theirs is the kind of vision that would produce Broccoli O's cereal and think kids would be flooding the stores to buy them. I take that back... compare broccoli with cow lips and ass and broccoli would win hands down.

My guess is that scientifically literate people led the charge to take that crap out of our food chain. Just an opinion. I talk with friends, family and neighbors, all highly educated, and we share info about safe food, locally produced food, organic links etc. I wouldn't buy anything from an outfit like that for any reason and I don't even want to hear their bullshit. The farmer down the road I trust.

[Travelman]

27. It's time to ban

DHMO. Dangerous stuff, that. Did you know that 2/3 of the makeup of DHMO is used in the construction of some nuclear weapons? Good Lord, what dangerous stuff that is!

[bitchkitty]

33. ha ha.

Hilarious, but comparing the famous water hoax to people being upset over ammonia-treated beef waste is a false equivalency.

[Odin2005]

39. Not wanting AMMONIA-TREATED MYSTERY MEAT is "delicate sensibilities"???

[Robb]

44. I'll see if you know:

How much ammonia do you think is present in untreated beef?

[wordpix]

50. enough so it tastes like cardboard?

[eppur_se_muova]

41. 850 jobs sacrificed to a bad business model.

Sell whatever shit you want as food, but don't tell anybody what's in it.

... and YET they went bankrupt ! Unreal.

[Mosby]

43. the latest scientific evidence shows that no amount of red meat is "safe"

Just saying.

[Psephos]

54. If you're referring to lot-fattened, corn-fed, antibiotic-injected red meat, I hear you.

Pastured, humanely-raised beef is a whole different subject.

http://www.naturalnews.com/035310_red_meat_grass-fed_beef_processed_food.html

I don't eat red meat myself, btw. But not because of healthiness reasons.

[.99center]

48. Agree

If BPI wouldn't have employed Kit Foshee for 10 years with his god damn delicate sensibilities and his concern for the public we would still be eating this delicious E.Coli ridden pink slime. Was he being too delicate for being concerned about BPI's process of throwing out just the box of product that failed their own PH test while sending out the rest of the boxes untested?

[sendero]

53. Nonsense..

... people will eat the same amount of beef, just not THAT beef. There is no net job loss.

[KansDem]

5. "...it plans to sell some or all of its assets"

Calling Mitt Romney!!!

[wordpix]

51. "Calling Mitt Romney!" Priceless

[MADem]

6. Change their business model--add carrots, green beans and vitamins, and call it dog food.

Cook it up in the can with a little garlic, and there ya go. Pink slime is probably better than the road kill and not terribly fresh finely textured and processed horsemeat that is in the bargain dog food brands. And you don't have to worry about additives from China that will cause your dog to go into kidney failure.

And for people who say "Ewww, I wouldn't feed that to MY dog," and denigrate the concept totally, all I have to say is that it is wonderful to be wealthy enough to be able to afford the "Newman's Own" or Halo "organic" dog food, but poor people have pets, too, and any dog food that offers them nutrition, even if not optimal, is better than no dog food at all.

[onehandle]

7. Not my problem. I gave up (meat based) hamburgers a generation ago. nt

[robinlynne]

8. why not make real meat instead of closing?

[Evasporque]

9. Bad business model to start with....

Profit growth in food production means finding ways to make "more" profit off of less of the most expensive ingredients...

1. Additives....add cheap indigestible fillers.
2. Add air....air is free and you can say it is crunchy and new and improved.
3. Add HFCS and flavorings to reduce the amount of actual food and increase profit.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. especially if you use "fresh" air.

[Snake Alchemist]

12. I am sure the workers can be retrained. nt

[Ian David]

14. What about the ones that have associate degrees in Slime Management? n/t

[Snake Alchemist]

18. Food irradiation is the alternative so there is sure to be work in those plants. nt

[nadeltanz]

15. why bankruptch

My thoughts are so much "pink slime" was being put in the meat, that AFA became dependent on putting it in, i.e. the Company was putting more than the legal 15%. I wouldn't be surprised if it was discovered 50% or more of the "pink" stuff was added. Is it nomal to place ammonia in any food?

[Snake Alchemist]

16. You do realize that no ammonia is actually put in the final product? nt

[leftyohiolib]

21. well unless youre the one doing the finalizing you cant say that. but we surely can believe the corp

line cause business' never lie. what happens to the ammonia they put in the "food". it may not go into the final product , who knows, but it's in there and im sure it doesnt just disappear w/o a trace

[Snake Alchemist]

22. Just don't eat any hotdogs...ever nt

[Travelman]

28. Actually, it basically does disappear without a trace

Ammonia evaporates very quickly.


BTW, you do know that you have ammonia in your body right now, don't you? You know that your body makes ammonia?

[leftyohiolib]

30. yes i do. i have alot of stuff in my body none of which i want on my food.(maybe the salt and sugar)

your body also excretes the ammonia
"BTW, you do know that you have ammonia in your body right now, don't you? You know that your body makes ammonia?" yes but if i drank a bottle of ammonia it would likely kill me

[Travelman]

34. And there is NOTHING remotely like drinking a bottle of ammonia cleaner here

[freshwest]

19. 'Moran's'? LOL. Lawsuit? They should be charged criminally for adulterating food.

[appleannie1]

31. I have always found frozen hamburgers and ground meat in a roll disgusting. Now I know why.

I don't eat a lot of ground beef but if I do get it, I want fresh ground. The difference in taste and texture is amazing and I know how to shape my own hamburgers thankyou.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

32. I've seen Moran's at the local Lucky but hadn't Googled it yet

I know Lucky's own ground beef has the slime. I wasn't sure about Moran's. Now I am.

[mistertrickster]

35. Looks like the "hand of the marketplace" has spoken.

Quit whining, Cons.

[mistertrickster]

36. The easy solution--veggie diet

Don't eat anything that comes from an animal.

It's just not that hard . . .

[eppur_se_muova]

37. CORRECTION: Beef processor files for bankruptcy over shitty product.

The problem, as always, is not that they did anything wrong, but that they got caught.




ETA: You can bet this bankruptcy is a way of dumping workers and eliminating debt. The management will be back in business with a "new" company making the same product within a year -- with lower starting wages than before. Bottom feeders are nothing if not adaptable.

[Ian David]

38. I'm familiar with this problem...

[dixiegrrrrl]

42. Seems to me they "went bankrupt" pretty darn fast.

Since the pink slime huzzah is fairly recent, is it not?

I think there is more to this story than meets the eye.

[quakerboy]

46. I did notice that as well

Its been what, a couple months since this became a big story, and a month or so since companies started rejecting their product?

[Blue Owl]

47. Get a brain-eating bacterial infection, morans

n/t

[benld74]

55. Follow the money on this one people

As of December 2011, it posted annual revenue of $958 million.



AFA said it has $219 million in assets and $197 million in liabilities. AFA also said it has secured a commitment for $56 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its lenders GE Capital and Bank of America

They were running a day to day operation MADE possible by selling the slime. IF they ran their busines properly, they would still be in business.
ANOTHER case of GETTING TOO GREEDY. How greedy? 958 million evenue greedy.