“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare famously asked.

For the answer, consult the plainly named company most of us didn’t know existed two months ago, Beef Products Inc.

The company thought it produced a product called “lean finely textured beef” only to learn it was a purveyor of “pink slime.”

Those two words have forever changed the food industry, nearly put a large company out of business and embarrassed government officials.

How can that happen? Combine some hyperbole, electronic media and consumer wrath and somebody is going to get hurt.

It is also remarkable that many of us have been happily chomping on hamburgers containing this beef byproduct for 10 years without tasting a difference.

In fact, the company producing the substance says its testing shows consumers actually prefer — yes, prefer — the taste of a hamburger containing “lean finely textured beef.”

Of course, anything tastes good with enough ketchup, right? But what’s in ketchup? You can look that up, but you really do not want to know.

The story actually broke more than two years ago when a New York Times reporter, Michael Moss, reported that the South Dakota firm was turning scraps into something similar to ground meat.

His story concentrated on evidence showing the stuff was not being inspected, but sometimes contained E. coli and salmonella.

The cheaper version of ground beef was used nearly everywhere, including hamburger joints, grocery stores and the federal government’s school lunch program.

But the NYT story was apparently little-noticed by consumers.

That low profile was blown when a former U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist hooked up with ABC news and revealed the nickname inspectors had for the stuff: pink slime.

Oh, yuck! It makes your throat sticky just thinking about it.

The USDA, which has developed a spotty reputation for protecting consumers from dangerous pathogens, deserves to be roundly embarrassed by the revelations.

While the product may be safe, today’s consumers are demanding. They want to know exactly what they are buying and what’s been added to it along the way.

The burgeoning market for organic products is proof that a growing number of Americans are convinced government regulators are way too cozy with the industries they regulate.

We hope the food-products industry and government regulators learn something from this incident: Consumers deserve to know exactly what’s in the food they buy.

On the other hand, there is apparently no scientific reason the stuff can’t be mixed with regular ground meat and sold at a lower cost.

Some people will buy and use it to save money; others will read the package and pay a bit more for what they believe is a better product.

Either way, consumers deserve two things: accurate information and the right to choose.

They had neither before.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.