Many consumers only recently learned about lean finely textured beef thru media reports of "pink slime"- but Courtney Moon knows all about it first-hand. Last year - the University of Arkansas Animal Science Student saw what Tyson calls Lean Beef Trim processed at a Texas plant. Then Moon analyzed it.
 
[audio:LBT1.mp3][/audio]
    
    The product has been under fire because of how it's produced. It's scraped from carcasses, heated and centrifuged and then disinfected with ammonium hydroxide. However - the industry insists it's safe and wholesome. Moon looked at characteristics like oxidation, tenderness, color variation, cooking loss and pH.
 
[audio:LBT2.mp3][/audio]
    
    Moon's instructor - Janeal Yancey - says the product has been treated unfairly and misrepresented in the media.
 
[audio:LBT3.mp3][/audio]
 
Yancey says Lean Beef Trim is nutritionally the same as conventionally produced ground beef - and is probably safer.  As a side note - a livestock market specialist at Kansas State University says the controversy over the product probably drove live weight cattle prices three to five-cents a pound lower in March due to the reduced demand for lean trim. The market has been rebounding over the last couple of weeks.