King of Prussia food company goes bankrupt, blames ‘pink slime’

A King of Prussia-based food company that makes the beef filler known as “pink slime” filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today, in part blaming the recent media outcry over the processed meat product, the Associated Press reports.

AFA Foods processes over 500 million pounds of ground beef products each year for retailers like Wal-Mart, Safeway and BJ’s Wholesale Club and fast food chains including Burger King and Wendy’s. A spokesman for the company told the AP that, while the company does not rely on “pink slime,” the controversy raised by the term has raised has reduced the demand for all ground beef products in the already competitive industry.

Though AFA had been attempting to make a turnaround in a sector marked by oversaturation and deeply impacted by the rising cost of meat, interim CEO Ron Allen said in an affidavit that the “unfounded public outcry” over the use of the lean, finely textured beef sabotaged those efforts, according to the report.