NORTH SIOUX CITY, SD – Beef Products Inc., (BPI) will hold a press conference Sept. 13 to announce a major defamation lawsuit regarding the company’s lean finely textured beef (LFTB) product.

The press conference will be held at BPI headquarters in North Sioux City. Speakers include Dan Webb, chairman of Winston & Strawn LLP and Craig Letch, director of Food Safety and Quality Assurance for BPI.

The company was a manufacturer of LFTB, also called “pink slime” in the media. BPI was hard-hit by negative media coverage and criticism of LFTB. A coalition of governors toured the South Sioux City plant in March as part of an effort aimed at restoring public confidence in LFTB and the process used to make it. But BPI would ultimately lose the battle.

In May, BPI permanently closed three manufacturing facilities — in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kan.; and Waterloo, Iowa — citing decreased demand for its products. The company kept its facility in South Sioux City, Neb., open but at reduced capacity. The company said 650 people lost their jobs as a result of the plant closings, while the company shed an additional 85 jobs at the company’s headquarters in North Sioux City.