A worker who was laid off from Beef Products, Inc. is suing ABC News, claiming the network’s use of the “pink slime” phrase to describe BPI’s products led to him losing his job.
The worker, Bruce Smith, is one of 750 people who laid off at BPI. The South Dakota-based company is also suing ABC News for $1.2 billion in damages, claiming the network aired about 200 “false and misleading and defamatory” reports referring to their line, finely textured beef as “pink slime.”
BPI and “and its employees were unfairly and unnecessarily maligned and accused of producing a food product that did not exist, a product that critics unfairly labeled ‘pink slime,'” Smith said in a statement.
ABC’s Diane Sawyer and Jim Avila, as well as celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and several others, are also named in the lawsuit.