[10] In March 2012, an ABC News series about "pink slime" included claims that approximately 70% of ground beef sold in US supermarkets contained the additive at that time.

Finely textured meat is produced by heating boneless beef trimmings (the last traces of skeletal muscle meat, scraped, shaved, or pressed from the bone) to 107–109 °F (42–43 °C), removing the melted fat by centrifugal force using a centrifuge, and flash freezing the remaining product to 15 °F (−9 °C) in 90 seconds in a roller press freezer.

[22] The recovered beef material is extruded through long tubes that are thinner than a pencil, during which time at the BPI processing plant, the meat is exposed to gaseous ammonia.

[23] In an Associated Press review, food editor and cookbook author J. M. Hirsh compared the taste of two burgers: one containing LFTB and one traditional hamburger.

[35] In 1994, in response to public health concerns over pathogenic E. coli in beef, the founder of BPI, Eldon Roth, began work on the "pH Enhancement System", which disinfects meat using injected anhydrous ammonia in gaseous form,[20][29][36] rapid freezing to 28 °F (−2 °C),[20] and mechanical stress.

[20][29] FSIS microbiologists Carl Custer and Gerald Zirnstein stated that they argued against the product's approval for human consumption, saying that it was not "meat" but actually "salvage",[11] and that the USDA should seek independent verification of its safety,[29] but they were overruled.

[35] In 2007, the USDA determined the disinfection process was so effective that it would be exempt from "routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public".

[40] In January 2010, The New York Times published an editorial reiterating the concerns posed in the news article while noting that no meat produced by BPI had been linked to any illnesses or outbreaks.

"The scientists said they had used the term 'pink slime' to describe the product, which they said should have been identified as an additive and believed was not actually beef as it is commonly defined.

"[45] The American Meat Institute and Beef Products Inc. retorted with a YouTube video featuring Dr. Gary Acuff of Texas A&M University questioning some of Oliver's statements and promoting the additive.

[46][47] An 11-segment series of reports in March 2012 from ABC News brought widespread public attention to and raised consumer concerns about the product.

[49] The product has been characterized as "unappetizing, but perhaps not more so than other things that are routinely part of hamburger" by Sarah Klein, an attorney for the food safety program at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

[51] Food policy writer Tom Laskawy noted that ammonium hydroxide is only one of several chemicals routinely added to industrially produced meat in the United States.

[56][57][58][59] In April 2012 the Concord Monitor reported increased business in some small neighborhood markets where the product's use was less likely, due to consumer concerns about the additive.

[63] Effective May 25, 2012, BPI closed three of its four plants, including one in Garden City, Kansas, lost more than $400 million in sales,[64][65] and laid off 700 workers.

[66] Cargill also significantly cut production of finely textured beef and in April 2012 "warned [that] the public's resistance to the filler could lead to higher hamburger prices this barbecue season".

[63] Many grocery stores and supermarkets, including the nation's three largest chains, announced in March 2012 that they would no longer sell products containing the additive.

[68] Some grocery companies, restaurants and school districts discontinued the sale and provision of beef containing the additive after the media reports.

[70] Both BPI and Cargill made plans to label products that contain the additive to alleviate these concerns and restore consumer confidence.

[72][73] By June 2012, 47 out of 50 U.S. states declined to purchase any of the product for the 2012–2013 school year while South Dakota Department of Education, Nebraska, and Iowa chose to continue buying it.

[84] On March 22, 2012, 41 Democrats in Congress, led by Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine, wrote a letter to United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, head of the USDA, that "creating a two-tiered school lunch program where kids in less affluent communities get served this low-grade slurry is wrong" and urged its elimination from all public-school lunches.

[87] Tester stated he planned to include provisions in the upcoming farm bill that would allow schools more flexibility in using USDA commodity funds, to increase options in purchasing locally grown and produced foods.

[85] For the year 2012, the USDA planned on purchasing 7 million pounds of lean beef trimmings for the U.S. national school lunch program.

[35] USDA spokesman Mike Jarvis stated that of the 117 million pounds of beef ordered nationally for the school lunch program in the past year, 6% was LFTB.

[85] On September 13, 2012, BPI announced that it filed a $1.2 billion lawsuit, Beef Products, Inc. v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., against ABC News; three reporters (Diane Sawyer, Jim Avila and David Kerley) and others, claiming ABC News made nearly "200 false, misleading and defamatory statements, repeated continuously during a month-long disinformation campaign", engaged in "product and food disparagement, and tortious interference with business relationships".

[94] On March 27, 2014, South Dakota state court Judge Cheryle Gering rejected ABC's motion to dismiss, and allowed the defamation suit to move forward.

[27] USDA disallows the use of spinal cord, organ meat such as cow intestines, bones, and connective tissue such as tendons in LFTB.

[104] Production of mechanically separated meat via use of bones or bone-in cuts of bovine, ovine and caprine animals are prohibited in the European Union.

[114] Similarly, the Consumer Federation of America said the plant closures were "unfortunate" and expressed concern that the product might be replaced in ground beef with "something that has not been processed to assure the same level of safety".

[5] Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey called upon the USDA to institute mandatory labeling guidelines for ground beef sold in supermarkets, so consumers can make informed purchasing decisions.