Is pink slime legal in United States?
Robert Guerrero
Updated on February 24, 2026
Accordingly, is pink slime still used?
In December 2018, the United States Department Of Agriculture's Food Safety And Inspection Service quietly reclassified “lean finely textured beef,” which some deride as “pink slime,” as “ground beef.” Beef Magazine reports the company that manufactures this product, Beef Products Incorporated, informed its suppliers
Also, what is pink slime made of? "Pink slime" refers to processed lean beef trimmings, and is a cheap filler used to "beef up" many meat products. It is made by salvaging the meat that gets trimmed off cuts of beef along with fat.
Also question is, who sells pink slime?
According to The Daily, these are among the stores that say they do not sell meat with pink slime:
- Safeway.
- A&P.
- Whole Foods.
- Costco.
- Publix.
- H-E-B.
- Waldbaum's.
- Price Chopper.
When did McDonald's stop using pink slime?
As an immediate result of the outrage, fast food companies like McDonald's vowed to stop using LFTB, as did many major grocery chains. Sales of pink slime fell drastically in 2012 after the exposé. But by 2014, sales had already doubled their all-time low. So, chances are there could be a pink slime burger near you.