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Food Integrity Campaign Blog

GAP Comment on BPI Lawsuit

Food Integrity Campaign | September 13, 2012

UPDATE: Kit Foshee releases statement.

Former Client Featured in Several ABC News Reports

(Washington, DC) – Earlier today, former Government Accountability Project (GAP) client Kit Foshee was named as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by Beef Products, Inc (BPI). Also named as defendants were ABC News, journalists Diane Sawyer and Jim Avila, and others. BPI produces the controversial ammoniated beef product commonly known as ‘pink slime’ and characterizes ABC’s reports about it as defamation.

Foshee, a former Corporate Quality Assurance Manager at BPI who has raised concerns about ‘pink slime’ for years, alleges that he was terminated for refusing to participate in the company’s misrepresentation of the product’s safety to the USDA and to customers. Foshee has spoken out about BPI at GAP conferences, and to the media, over the past several years. More on Foshee, his knowledge about this product, and his appearances on ABC News can be found here.

Amanda Hitt, Director of GAP’s Food Integrity Campaign (FIC) and former counsel to Foshee, is available to speak to the media. She provided the following statement regarding today’s news:

“Thanks to ABC News, Kit Foshee and other whistleblowers shared their concerns about BPI. Doing so took enormous courage for which they should be honored, not attacked. We believe that this product is questionable.”

Contact: Amanda Hitt, FIC Director
Phone: 202.457.0034, ext. 159
Email: amandah@whistleblower.org

Contact: Dylan Blaylock, Communications Director
Phone: 202.457.0034, ext. 137, 202.236.3733 (cell)

Email: dylanb@whistleblower.org

Government Accountability Project
The Government Accountability Project is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection organization. Through litigating whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms, GAP’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability. Founded in 1977, GAP is a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.

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