Pa. chain to stop selling beef with pink slime

CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) — Grocery chain Giant Food Stores today joined the growing number of food merchants that are halting sales of fresh ground beef containing the filler known as pink slime.

Giant Food Stores LLC, headquartered in Carlisle, cited questions and concerns raised by hundreds of its customers as the impetus for the move, which will affect the 144 Giant stores in Pennsylvania and the 39 Martin’s food stores it owns in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

“They felt that this was not something that they wanted to purchase so we decided we would not purchase it,” company spokesman Chris Brand said.

The switch to ground beef without the filler, known in the food industry as lean finely textured beef, will not occur overnight. It will take a few weeks to sell and replace the current inventory of beef, Brand said.