Meat Recall Again

[CattleArmy]

Beef taken off the menu after largest US meat recall Mon Feb 18, 10:24 AM ET



Schools in Washington state and California took beef off the menu on Monday after a Californian meatpacker recalled the largest amount of beef in US history.

But agriculture officials played down the risk to humans after Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing agreed to take back more than 143 million pounds of raw and frozen meat when it was found in violation of inspection rules.

The company, based in Chino, California, voluntarily recalled the beef after the federal Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) determined the cattle "did not receive complete and proper inspection."

The company did not "consistently contact the FSIS public health veterinarian in situations in which cattle became non-ambulatory" before being slaughtered, the USDA statement said Sunday.

Federal rules usually ban the slaughter of "downer cattle" -- those unable to walk -- as a safeguard against mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

US Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said Hallmark/Westland had been suspended by the FSIS, and that the federal government had suspended food and nutrition contracts with the company.

"I am dismayed by the inhumane handling of cattle that resulted in the violation of food safety regulations" by the company, Schafer said in a statement.

"It is extremely unlikely that these animals were at risk for BSE because of the multiple safeguards; however this action is necessary because plant procedures violated USDA regulations," he added.

The department did not say where those food products had been sold, but schools in Washington state and California removed beef from their lunch menus as a precaution, local officials said.

America's meat packing industry has already been plagued by outbreaks of E. coli bacteria and other problems.

In September, Topps Meats Co. of New Jersey recalled 21.7 million pounds of frozen hamburger patties after people in New York and Florida fell ill because of E. coli poisoning.

The New Jersey company later filed for bankruptcy because the recall involved a full year's worth of production.

The largest previous recall involved 35 million pounds of ready-to-eat meats in 1999.

James Reagan, Chairman of the Beef Industry Food Safety Council, backed Sunday's recall, describing it as "a precautionary measure," but sought to reassure consumers that the US beef supply is safe.

"We have multiple interlocking safeguards in place in every beef processing plant in America so that if one is bypassed, the other systems continue to ensure the product we serve our families remains safe," Reagan said.

But William Marler, a food safety attorney from Seattle, Washington, called for congressional hearings on the safety of the US beef supply, accusing the Department of Agriculture of failing to enforce its own ban against use of downer cattle in the nation's school lunch program.

"In light of the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company, which was caught on film processing 'downer' cattle, in violation of US law, we now know that USDA ban was a lie," Marler said.

 

[CattleArmy]

Why in the world with the BSE scare would anyone take a chance and be processing downed cattle. In my opinion companies like this one should be shut down for good. I also think the cattle should be traced back to where they came from. Anyone delivering downed cattle to processors should also be fined. I know it would be a tremendous job tracking, however if we don't start trying to protect our industry cases like this one are going to become more frequent. If we as cattle producers don't take steps to protect our industy no body else will.

 

[WyomingRancher]

I agree, a severe fine for both the producer and the meat processor.

There are so many of us in the beef industry trying to do it right. It makes me so mad that someone would even try this. We all could use salvage money, but sometimes you have to cut your own losses, and do what's best for both the animal and the industry.

We all suffer the consequences together, and CattleArmy made a good point that we as a group need to protect our industry.

 

[mwj]

What is it with the schools and low bid burger? Wasn't there an under cover deal several years ago where they were dragging in dead cows from the lots over lunch break? Stanco or stamco packing sticks in my mind but it has been several years back. If these plants are dealing in the low end of the cow market they should have more inspectors on the plant floor. The dairy cow industry pretty well uses them up before they ship them and are not bashfull about using medicine to keep them on there feet. This might cause a little change in the cattle that the buyers will take a chance on. These cattle should have been disposed of on the farm or shipped long before they got in that shape.

 

[Anonymous]

So much for allowing the Mafia to "police themselves".......

Slaughterhouse spy says he's afraid of retaliation

Tapings led to charges against workers, recall of millions of pounds of beef



By Steve Chawkins and Victoria Kim

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Article Launched: 02/19/2008 03:05:13 AM PST



To protect his identity and to frustrate possible retaliation, the undercover investigator behind the biggest beef recall in U.S. history refuses to disclose his name, his marital status, his hometown, his job background, even his age.



One of the few personal things he will reveal is his culinary preference: He is a vegan.



But in a telephone interview Monday, the investigator for the Humane Society of the United States sketched a bleak account of his six weeks at a Chino slaughterhouse that supplied meat to school-lunch programs and supermarkets throughout the nation.



By day, the investigator said, he helped drive cattle from trucks and pens into a chute that led to the killing floor.



At the same time, he employed a hidden camera to film the alleged brutalization of animals too weak or sick to walk to slaughter. Under federal regulations, only animals able to walk on their own can be used for meat.



At night, the agent said, he returned, exhausted and manure-flecked, to an Ontario motel to chronicle his findings in a notebook and lock his videotapes in a closet safe.



"It was so blatant, so commonplace," he said, speaking from a location he wouldn't reveal. "It was so in your face. ... They were pushing animals we felt never should have qualified for human consumption."



The video produced by the undercover operation led the San Bernardino District Attorney to file criminal charges against two workers at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to announce the recall of 143 million pounds of beef.



USDA officials said they think most of the meat has been consumed and said that the risk to the public is minimal.



The plant is now shuttered, and company officials could not be reached for comment Monday.



The investigator said he was on an unrelated mission -- one he would not disclose -- when he first stopped by the Chino plant.



Until then, he said, he did not realize that most of the animals slaughtered at Hallmark/Westland were dairy cattle -- many, he said, weak and emaciated when they were trucked in.



The investigator said he gave his real name and Social Security number and had no trouble getting the job. At $8 an hour for 12-hour days of grueling labor, turnover was so high, he said, that managers seemed happy to have anyone who would not quit the next day.



He worked from sunup until sundown, driving cattle down a long, narrow chute to the slaughterhouse. At the end of the day, he would spend about an hour shoveling manure and cleaning up.



During short lunch breaks in his car, he ate soy burgers and fake deli meat in an attempt to appear like other employees.



On his first day, he started getting glimpses of alleged illegal actions that he said were routine. When a cow collapsed on its way to the slaughter box, two workers immediately jumped into the chute.



One grabbed the cow by its tail and the other started shocking it with electrical prods, he said. When that failed, workers killed the cow on the spot, hooked a chain around the animal's neck and dragged it into the slaughter box on its knees.



"Downer" cattle that cannot walk have a higher occurrence of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and are supposed to be euthanized on the spot and removed immediately.



According to the American Meat Institute, an industry trade group, some "non-ambulatory" cattle at packing plants are simply injured and not necessarily ill.



As the investigator toiled in 100-degree heat, sweaty and smelly, he documented the actions through a pinhole camera he wore under his shirt and controlled with a switch in his pocket, he said.



With only one hour of recording capability each day, he constantly had to make judgment calls and save his tape for what he saw as the most egregious practices.



He saw weaker animals being prodded upright or having water shot into their nostrils before shakily walking to slaughter. Some downed cows were hauled with chains.



He said a supervisor would order his men to "Get them up! Get them up!" when cows seemed too sick to walk.



But government officials charged with inspecting the process were never present to witness such actions, he said.



"There just wasn't that level of oversight," he said. "As cows are making their final steps, there's no USDA personnel objecting to this behavior."



A self-described "behind the scenes person," the undercover employee said he has been concerned about animal treatment since he was a child.



"It takes a special person to do what he does," said Frank Loftus, a former broadcast journalist who heads investigations for the Humane Society and supervises undercover operations like the one in Chino. "When you're doing undercover stuff ... you're seeing it first hand."



The long days took their toll, the investigator said. Aching and sweat-drenched, he would return to his motel, check the recordings and make sure his camera had worked properly. Then he would jot down the day's major events in a journal, load his camera for the next day and flop into bed.



During the course of the operation, he said, three cameras were destroyed by the physical labor.



"You really get worn down," the investigator said. "You eat poorly -- microwaved food, the same frozen meal every night. At the end of the day, you're spent."



There were no calls home and few to his boss. He made no friends among his co-workers, most of whom spoke as little English as he spoke Spanish. On his days off, he stayed put, too tired to venture out. He said his cover never came close to failing, but he was always security conscious.



"There are a lot of people who don't like that these investigations happen," he said. "That's why I don't release what might seem like inconsequential details; I'm more worried about someone finding a connection to people around me than I am about myself."



Humane Society officials say the Chino plant was randomly chosen for the investigation, and they suggest that the findings may not be all that uncommon.



"In my mind, it's not unique," Loftus said. "Are other locations this abusive? I can't say."



Loftus said the society has several other undercover operatives but would not say how many.



The American Meat Institute on Monday warned against making generalizations based on Hallmark/Westland, saying that practices depicted in the investigator's videotapes "stand in sharp contrast" to those of a typical packer.



The investigator said he knows that one day -- perhaps in a court proceeding related to the Chino slaughterhouse -- his cloak of anonymity will come off. It is a risk he is willing to face.



"There'd be no point in any of this if I weren't willing to take that stand," he said. "But it's something I'm not really focusing on right now. The concealment of my identify is still something I consider really important."



contracostatimes.com

Grandin estimates that at least 10 percent of meat companies try to sidestep regulations…



Wider safety problem seen in huge beef recall



By Jonathan D. Rockoff, Tribune Newspapers Baltimore Sun Tribune reporters Tina Shah and Carlos Sadovi contributed to this report



Chicago Tribune

February 19, 2008



The record recall Sunday of 143 million pounds of ground beef illustrates a key gap that remains despite recent federal efforts to bolster food safety: The quality of government inspections continues to vary, food safety experts say.



"You go to one plant, and they do an excellent job. You go to another, and they don't," said Temple Grandin, an animal handling expert at Colorado State University who helped develop industry guidelines on proper practices and regularly visits plants.



Based on her own observations, Grandin estimates that at least 10 percent of meat companies try to sidestep regulations.



"Our inspection program for foods -- whether at the [Food and Drug Administration] or U.S. [Department of Agriculture] -- needs to be revisited," said Michael Doyle, a food safety expert at the University of Georgia. The USDA has denied that enforcement was insufficient. "We know our inspectors were correctly inspecting the plant," said spokeswoman Amanda Eamich.



On Sunday, Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., in Chino, Calif., withdrew the 143 million pounds of ground beef, the largest beef recall in U.S. history.



Some of the beef had been headed for Chicago Public School meals, but officials in Chicago put a hold on the meat about two weeks ago after they were notified by one of their suppliers that there were concerns about the beef, said Mike Vaughn, spokesman for Chicago Public Schools.



Vaughn said there have been no reports of children or others getting sick.



The district decided not to use any of the meat and had to make menu adjustments, he said.



chicagotribune.com