It's a filler in those products. You weren't buying a tube of "lean, finely textured beef" product from any of those stores. You were buying ground beef with this filler added (up to around 25% or so).
>>You were buying ground beef with this filler added (up to around 25% or so). <<
Get in real close and read the label. The 25% is fat. The rest is BEEF. The parts that they couldn’t get from between the bones, the less desirable cuts and then it’s all chopped up, treated for E. Coli and packaged in those cute tubes.
It’s BEEF.