How refreshing. A government type who doesn’t waffle because they’re worried about what industry might say, or what farmers might say, or all the uncertainties involved in managing risk.

Experts say elimination of lean finely textured beef from the U.S. ground beef supply would call for the addition of 1.5 million head of cattle to the nation’s dwindling herd to replace the product.

Concerns over lean finely textured beef (LFTB) are influencing consumer buying decisions, according to a Harris Interactive poll commisssioned by casual-dining brand Red Robin.

Gourmet products manufacturer Olivia may describe its production facility as a pastoral-sounding "wooden house with a chimney" emitting the aroma of "a true kitchen," but it's a kitchen that is characterized by unhygienic conditions, ranging from mold in its dried-tomato storage containers to filth and creepy-crawlies on the floor.

Ten years and 1,200 miles separate Beef Products Inc.’s headquarters in Dakota Dunes, S.D., and Lorton, Va., where Gerald Zirnstein now resides, unemployed and dogged by the internal memo he wrote in 2002 dubbing BPI’s product “pink slime.” But the Kansas native and former USDA employee remains resolute that lean finely textured beef (LFTB) is an “additive” a

A few days ago, I asked Marion Nestle for a small favor and she graciously complied so I feel a little conflicted at disagreeing with some of her editorial comments about Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB). She writes a column for the San Francisco Chronicle and on Friday created an excellent overview, done in a question and answer format, of the mostly erroneous beliefs surrounding LFTB.