Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 12/26/11


Beef Products Inc. has lost about 25 percent of its business and has had to cut production to four days a week from five as McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Burger King have all stopped buying its lean ground beef product treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens, according to the Argus Leader.
The newspaper quoted CEO Eldon Roth as saying hours have been reduced, but no workers have been laid off and that sales have started to stabilize for BPI, which has never had an illness traced to its products.

To read the full Argus Leader story click here.

BPI officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

The company has been praised for its safety record and its innovative pathogen intervention. However, media coverage and a widely viewed video by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver — which innaccurately portrays the process as pouring household ammonia on ground beef — have hurt public perception of the process.

Reaction
"It is unfortunate that an irresponsible segment like Jamie Oliver's continues to have ramifications in the public arena and hopefully our Meat Myth Crushers video will help set the record straight," American Meat Institute spokeswoman Janet Riley told Meatingplace in reaction to the ramifications for BPI outlined in the Argus Leader story.  

In October, AMI produced a video as part of its Meat Myth Crusher series specfically to counter the Jamie Oliver video. The AMI video explains the ammonia gas pathogen intervention that BPI uses. The AMI video titled "Myth: Ordinary Household Ammonia is Used to Make Some Hamburger" can be viewed here.

Jim Marsden, regent’s distinguished professor at Kansas State University, and a food safety blogger for Meatingplace, also reacted to the article with support for BPI's process.

"BPI took the lead in developing a process that controls dangerous pathogens in beef. Their commitment to food safety and the fact that their products have been widely used by ground beef processors have contributed to the progress the industry has made in controlling E. coli O157:H7," he told Meatingplace.

 "The problem is that any technology used to kill bacteria can be portrayed as 'bad' by activist groups. I think many of these groups have an anti-meat agenda and oppose everything the industry does to make its products safer."    

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