Beef processor's 'pink slime' lawsuit against ABC is settled with a confidential agreement

(National Public Radio photo)

ABC News and Beef Products Inc. on Wednesday settled a $5.7 billion lawsuit over 2012 news reports on a beef product the news outlet dubbed "pink slime."

The terms of the settlement, which ended a trial in a small town in South Dakota, are confidential, reports Kate Taylor of Business Insider.

Dan Webb, attorney for the beef firm, said the said the settlement "vindicated" the company and its "lean finely textured beef," the beef product at the center of the "pink slime" controversy. "They ignored the proper name," Webb said. "When you have a major news organization that is calling the product 'slime,' witnesses will say they can't imagine anything worse. It connotes something disgusting, inedible."

The beef company had to close three plants and lay off 700 workers because of backlash from the reports, Taylor reports. "ABC's attorney argued that the 'pink slime' reports brought to light that BPI and other ground-beef producers were using a beef product that most customers were unaware they were eating," she writes.