Beef Products sues ABC News for $1.2 bn in damages over misleading reports

Beef Products Inc sued ABC News Inc for defamation yesterday over its coverage of a meat product that critics dubbed "pink slime",  accusing the network of misleading consumers into believing it was unhealthy and unsafe.

The company is seeking $1.2 billion in damages for around 200 "false and misleading and defamatory" statements about the product officially known as lean, finely textured beef, according to Dan Webb, BPI's Chicago-based attorney.

Several individuals have been named as defendants in the lawsuit filed in a South Dakota state court, including ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer and the Departure of Agriculture microbiologist who coined the term "pink slime."

According to Webb, the company's reporting caused consumers to believe that its lean beef was not beef at all it was an unhealthy pink slime, unsafe for public consumption, and that somehow it got hidden in the meat.
 
He added the reports had "an enormous impact" on the company, which was forced to close down three of its four US plants and lay off over 650 workers. Webb further said the network also published a list of chain grocery stores that had stopped selling the product, which pressured others to end their business relationship with BPI.

According to Craig Letch, BPI's director of food-quality assurance, the company lost 80 per cent of its business in 28 days and though some of the customers had returned, but BPI still did not have the customer base that would allow it to rehire former employees.

Webb claimed, the reports created the false impression "that it's some type of chemical product, that it's not beef. It led people to believe that it's some kind of repulsive, horrible, vile substance that got put into ground beef and hidden from consumers."