that contains up to 15% of the product can be labeled as "ground beef". Up to 2005, filler could make up to 25% of ground meat. In an Associated Press review, food editor and cookbook author J. M. Hirsh compared the taste of two burgers: one containing LFTB and one traditional hamburger. He described the LFTB-containing burgers as smelling the same, but being less juicy and with not as much flavor. In 2002, a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) microbiologist stated that the product contained connective tissue and that he did not consider it to be ground beef and that it was "not nutritionally equivalent" to ground beef. Rick Jochum, a spokesperson for BPI, stated in 2012 that BPI's product does not contain cow intestines or connective tissue such as tendons. Early use In 1990, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) approved the use of the technology for manufacturing finely textured meat. At the time of its approval, the FSIS called the remaining product "meat", although one FSIS microbiologist dissented, arguing it contained both muscle and connective tissue. In 1994, in response to public health concerns over pathogenic E. coli in beef, the founder of BPI, Eldon Roth, began work on the "pH Enhancement System", which disinfects meat using injected anhydrous ammonia in gaseous form, rapid freezing to , and mechanical stress. In 2001, the FSIS approved the gaseous disinfection system as an intermediate step before the roller press freezer, and approved the disinfected product for human consumption, as an additive. The FSIS agreed with BPI's suggestion that ammonia was a "processing agent" which did not need to be listed on labels as an ingredient. FSIS microbiologists Carl Custer and Gerald Zirnstein stated that they argued against the product's approval for human consumption, saying that it was not "meat" but actually "salvage", and that the USDA should seek independent verification of its safety, but they were overruled. In 2003, BPI commissioned a study of the effectiveness and safety of the disinfection process; the Iowa State University researchers found no safety concern in the product or in ground beef containing it. The term "pink slime", a reference to the product's "distinctive look", was coined in 2002 by Zirnstein in an internal FSIS e-mail. Expressing concern that ammonia should be mentioned on the labels of packaged ground beef to which the treated trimmings are added, Zirnstein stated "I do