Safeway, Supervalu Will Cease Buying Pink Slime

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Mar 23, 2012 5:30PM

The nation's second- and third-largest supermarket companies announced Wednesday they would stop meat containing the filler product known as pink slime, citing customer concerns over the filler.

Supervalu, the national supermarket company that lists Acme, Albertsons, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher's, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's/Shop 'N Save, Save-A-Lot and Shoppers among its brand, announced Wednesday they would stop carrying meat containing "pink slime".

Safeway, the nation's second-largest supermarket company which also includes the Genuardi's, Dominick's, Pak 'N Save, Randall's, and Vons Food and Drug brands, also announced they would pull fresh and frozen ground beef from shelves.

Federal regulators said the filler, made from bits of meat treated with ammonium hydroxide as a sterilization agent, meets federal safety standards. The American Meat Institute told Chicagoist the product—which they call "boneless lean beef trimmings"—is "safe, wholesome and nutritious."

Pink slime is found in 70 percent of the ground beef found in American supermarkets. Awareness and criticism of the filler has increased since the USDA purchased 7 million pounds of pink slime-filled ground beef rejected by fast food companies for national school lunch programs. Earlier this month the National School Lunch program announced that it would allow local school districts to decide where they would buy their ground beef, beginning in the fall.