Dem presses USDA to ban 'pink slime' in school lunches

A Maine Democrat is pressing the Obama administration to ban "pink slime" in school cafeterias.

Rep. Chellie Pingree said the product – a blend of beef scraps treated with ammonia and used as a ground-beef filler – is "gross" and unfit for consumption by schoolchildren.

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Pingree is urging the agency to abandon its plan to continue buying hamburgers and other meats containing the product—historically used in animal feeds—for the nation's schools.