School districts across the country have been inundated by parents’ concerns over a beef product that has come under fire by natural-food activists. In St Joseph officials say school lunches are safe.

As grocery stores and industrial kitchens nationwide refuse to offer Lean Finely Textured Beef, the beef industry is shuffling to replace the product. The film “Food, Inc.” characterized the product as “pink slime,” even though health experts, the USDA, and industry officials insist on its safety.

For better or worse, that name has stuck.

In the St Joseph School District, Nutrition Director Robin Rhodes says LFTB is tough to spot, because there are no labeling requirements.

“The product isn’t an additive under the USDA rules,” Rhodes said.

“So, whenever it’s put back into other beef products it still shows up as beef, it doesn’t show that there’s been anything added to it or whether that product has been utilized.”

Rhodes says the process of producing LFTB has been an approved process for some time, and if there were any health problems associated with it, we would have heard something by now.

He’s investigating the products currently in use in the school system’s lunch program.

Rhodes says word is now filtering through the distribution network that USDA will not be delivering the product to schools during the 2012-2013 school year.

Last week, representatives of HyVee and Apple Market stores in St Joseph said they will no longer carry beef products that include LFTB. That move is expected to raise the price of ground beef in St Joseph by 20 to 30 cents per pound. (Find story here)