lean finely textured beef

noun

A meat byproduct produced from otherwise unusable material such as skin and connective, spinal, and digestive tissues by heating and then mixing with ammonia in a centrifuge to produce a food additive.

Meanings

nounlean finely textured beef (uncountable)

alternative LFTB · alternative lean, finely textured beef

  1. USuncountablemeat industryA meat byproduct produced from otherwise unusable material such as skin and connective, spinal, and digestive tissues by heating and then mixing with ammonia in a centrifuge to produce a food additive.

    So now the world is aware that "lean finely textured beef" is actually an alias for "ammonia-soaked centrifuge-separated byproduct paste".

    2012 March 28, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Jon Stewart (actor), Comedy Central
    3 more examples

    Two such materials that have been available for only a relatively short period of time are lean finely textured beef (LFTB) and lean finely textured pork (LFTP). They are obtained by low-temperature recovery of protein from trimmed beef […]

    2001, Meat Science and Applications (Y. H. Hui, Wai-Kit Nip, Robert W. Rogers), page 455

    In a related study, Van Laack et al. (1997) studied the residual color of patties prepared from normal or high pH beef and lean finely textured beef. Addition of lean finely textured beef to high pH beef resulted in a more well-done color […]

    2002, Steve Taylor, Advances in Food and Nutrition Research, volume 44, page 168

    When specified by the purchaser, lean finely textured beef may be combined with boneless beef meeting the above material requirements […]

    2006, in The Meat Buyers Guide: Beef, Lamb, Veal, Pork, and Poultry (produced by the North American Meat Processors Association), page 29

    Synonyms: pink slime, soylent pink, boneless lean beef trimmings

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA meat byproduct produced from otherwise unusable material such as skin and connective, spinal, and digestive tissues by heating and then mixing with ammonia in a centrifuge to produce a food additive.

Also see
Cite this entry
APA

lean finely textured beef. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lean%20finely%20textured%20beef

MLA

“lean finely textured beef.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lean%20finely%20textured%20beef. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lean finely textured beef,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lean%20finely%20textured%20beef.

Source: lean finely textured beef on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.