Federal agriculture officials have begun to allow meat producers to voluntarily list whether their products contain beef trimmings treated with ammonia that critics have dubbed “pink slime.” Critics have called for mandatory labeling amid consumer outcry over what the industry calls lean finely textured beef, or LFTB. LFTB is added to about 10 billion pounds of ground beef consumed in the U.S. each year, according to the American Meat Institute. The controversy led producer Beef Product Inc. to suspend production at some of its plants last week and forced another processor, AFA Foods, in to bankruptcy.
