SAN ANTONIO – Last month, several fast food chains made headlines when they said they would stop using so-called "pink slime" -- filler added to ground beef.
The slime is also accused of being in grocery store-bought beef.
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Texas grocery giant HEB, however, has officially denied adding the pink slime to their ground beef.
"HEB ground beef is 100 percent pure," said HEB spokeswoman Dya C. Campos in a statement. "HEB has never and will never use additives. HEB ground beef is also from Texas."
According to government whistleblowers, pink slime -- a meat filler that was once used only in dog food and cooking oil -- is found in 70 percent of the ground beef bought at grocery stores.
According to former USDA scientist Gerald Zirnstein, the waste trimmings are collected Sand simmered at low heat to make it easier to separate the fat from muscle. It's then put into a centrifuge and spun to finish that separation.
Next, the mixture is sprayed with ammonia gas to kill bacteria. Finally, it's compressed intro bricks and flash-frozen for shipment to meatpackers and grocery stores, where it's added to most ground beef.
According to Zirnstein, it doesn't have to appear on the label.