Beef Products Inc. files lawsuit against whistleblower & ABC News

Kit Foshee, former Corporate Quality Assurance Manager at BPI, has been named a defendant in a defamation lawsuit on the controversial 'pink slime' product.

Foshee was a former Corporate Quality Assurance Manager for Beef Products, Inc. Foshee raised concerns about "pink slime" for years, and alleges that he was terminated from his job for refusing to participate in the company's misrepresentation of the product, both to customers and to the USDA. Foshee had read the scientific studies produced by BPI, supporting it's claims for the ammoniation process. He knew that blending the product with other ground beef would not have any significant antimicrobial reduction effect. At the Anyone Can Whistle event at the Paley Center for the Media, Foshee likened BPI’s process to dousing your hamburger with Mr. Clean. For this reason, he refused to tell BPI processor customers that it would, and believes it is for this reason that he lost his job. Unfortunately, by the time he approached Government Accountability Project (GAP) about the issue, the statute of limitations on any legal claim he could have had was passed. However, GAP was able to assist Foshee is bringing national attention to BPI's questionable representations and the dangers of microbial contamination. On Thursday, Foshee was named as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by BPI. Other defendants are ABC News, journalists Diane Sawyer and Jim Avila and other parties. BPI states that ABC's reports on its controversial ammoniated beef product, commonly known as "pink slime", are defamatory. Today Amanda Hitt, Director of GAP's Food Integrity Campaign (FIC), and former counsel to Foshee made the following statement: "Thanks to ABC News, Kit Foshee and other whistleblowers who shared their concerns about BPI. Doing so took enormous courage for which they should be honored, not attacked. We believe that this product is questionable."