AFA files for bankruptcy due to 'slime'

• Tweet

WILMINGTON, Del., April 2 (UPI) -- U.S. meat processing firm AFA Foods Inc. says it has filed for bankruptcy due to a consumer backlash over a product critics call "pink slime."

The company supplies meats to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Safeway, Supervalu Inc., Burger King, Jack in the Box Inc., and others, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Its products include ground beef containing boneless lean beef trimmings, the Journal said.

In a bankruptcy filing in Wilmington, Del., the firm said its business plan "was quickly undermined by market forces beyond the debtors' control."

The company called attention to, "unfounded public outcry over the use of boneless lean beef trimmings," that it said has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and has been available for 20 years.

The treatment of beef trimmings with ammonium hydroxide to kill E.coli and other pathogens was given an alarming spin last year in a YouTube video that showed celebrity chef Jamie Oliver using a washing machine to mix beef with household ammonia.

After extracting the results from the washing machine, Oliver asks an audience if they would consider feeding it to their children.

AFA Foods' bankruptcy filing says, "Almost all retail grocery stores have succumbed to public pressure to reduce or eliminate the sale of products containing boneless lean beef trimmings, as well as public requests to prominently label products containing BLBT."