Pink Slime is returning to school cafeterias in at least four states. 

According to the Politico, the meat, also referred to as "finely textured beef" is re-emerging in school cafeterias across the country, despite last year's massive campaign against the product.The campaign resulted in many school eliminating the meat from their school lunch rooms.  

Seven states have ordered about two million pounds of the beef that may contain the ammonia-treated meat for the 2013-14 school year. This time last year, three states put in the same order. 

Schools in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Texas have placed orders for the ground beef for the next nine months. The four states join Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, did not stop serving the pink slime after a campaign urged schools to give up the meat. 

According to Politico, lean finely textured beef brings down the cost of ground beef by about three percent, which can add up quickly in a program that feed more than 31 million school children a day. 

Food safety advocates and health officials within the meat industry, insist the finely texture of the beef is just as safe as other ground beef. A New York Times Pulitzer-prize winner showed the numerous government reports have connected the product with elevated levels of disease causing E. coli bacteria. 

The meat began receiving bad press after an ABC News report by Diane Sawyer convinced the American public that the product was "gross" and dangerous. Influencing many schools and restaurant chains to ditch the product. 

Schools are most likely embracing the meat again for three reasons, according to Politico: either the outrage over the pink slime has subsided, beef prices are hovering around all-time high and lunch budget for the last five years have become tight. Adding the ground beef reduces its cost by about 3 percent.

"The USDA  has repeatedly affirmed that lean finely textured beef is safe, wholesome, and nutritious 100 percent lean beef," Craig Letch, director of food safety and quality assurance for Beef Products Inc. said according to Politico.