Amarillo, TX - Production at an area beef manufacturer that has provided over three-hundred billion meals to consumers nationwide has been halted.
Now Beef Products Incorporated is struggling to stay open.
Today BPI announced that their use of lean finely textured beef, commonly known as "pink slime" has caused them to rapidly lose customers.
The plant in Amarillo has been in business for over thirty years and hopes they can educate consumers on the truth of what they use.
Eighty-percent of all ground beef in the U.S. has been provided by BPI for dozens of years but now all that has changed.
"Our businesses have been severely impacted. As a result, we have no choice but to suspend operations at three plants, including the one that we built here in Amarillo in 1981," says Craig Letch, Director of Food Safety and Quality Assurance, Beef Products Incorporated.
The reason? Recent controversy over the use of lean finely textured beef in ground beef.
According to the USDA, this product is safe.
"We've been unfairly accused of making what the media calls "pink slime", a catch phrase that has little resemblance to what we produce, which is one-hundred percent beef," says Craig Letch, Director of Food Safety and Quality Assurance, Beef Products Incorporated.
The Amarillo plant which is located within Tyson will leave more than 200 employees without a job, but if the company's customer base picks back up, those employees could get their jobs back.
That's why the company is working on providing the consumer with what they feel is correct information.
"Our employees and our local communities deserve better than what they've received from the national media. Beef products has long been recognized as an industry leader for quality and safety. We hope that once people understand the truth about who we are and what we do, we can reopen our facilities and bring our colleagues back to work," says Craig Letch, Director of Food Safety and Quality Assurance, Beef Products Incorporated.
BPI has come up with a website that they hope will gain their consumers' trust back http://beefisbeef.com
