Sept. 11—Kids are going back to school and so is the ground beef filler dubbed “pink slime.”
Thousands of schools across the U.S. rushed last year to stop feeding their students meat that contained the ammonia-treated beef, known by industry as lean finely textured beef. Their action followed a massive media uproar, which included a prime time show featuring British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and a series of critical reports by ABC World News.
But new government data show schools in four more states have since put aside concerns and resumed buying the controversial product.
As of Sept. 3, seven states put in orders to the USDA for about 2 million pounds of beef that may contain the controversial product for the meals they serve in the 2013-14 school year. At this time last year there were only three states—Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota—that had put in orders for beef that may contain lean finely textured beef.