USDA Won't Disclose
Who Sold Recalled Beef
Lawmakers Are Told
Rule Bars Release;
Revision Is in Works
By JANE ZHANG
March 7, 2008; Page A8
WASHINGTON -- Agriculture Department officials, under fire on Capitol Hill over the largest meat recall in U.S. history, told legislators that they can't disclose a list of 10,000 establishments -- from food distributors and processors to grocery stores and restaurants -- that sold the recalled meat.
But a rule change, in the works for the past two years, would allow the disclosure if it hadn't been held up by bureaucratic delays.
Richard Raymond, the department's undersecretary for food safety, told the House Appropriation's agriculture panel that he has pushed for the rule change, but it has yet to be sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget for approval. The USDA and the budget office, however, have been discussing the rule informally.
That answer didn't satisfy some lawmakers. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D., N.Y.) said the names of the companies are not proprietary, and he requested that the USDA provide information by the middle of next week.
"This is a very, very critically important issue," he said. "If we have stores that are selling bad products, we should know about it."
Mr. Hinchey pursued the matter at a separate hearing with OMB Director Jim Nussle, who promised to look into the rule change, the congressman's spokesman said.
USDA officials have been grilled at a series of congressional hearings in the last few weeks after the recall of 143 million pounds of beef, dating back two years, by Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. The Chino, Calif., company, the second-biggest beef supplier last year to the national school-lunch program, has been shut down indefinitely.
Agriculture officials said the recall wasn't triggered by food contamination but because of the way the company handled cows that had passed a preslaughter inspection yet then became unable to stand. Undercover video by the Humane Society of the United States showed workers forcing so-called downer cows to stand up using forklifts and electrical-shock devices, and dragging at least one cow to the area where cattle were killed.
Most of the meat has been consumed, but the USDA's Dr. Raymond said some may have been made into canned food and might be on grocery-store shelves. The government has ordered the recalled meat to be destroyed and buried in landfills. But The Wall Street Journal has reported that a few companies are holding off destroying the meat with the hope it could be donated or put back in stores.
Questioned by subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa Delauro about holding on to the meat, Dr. Raymond said that was "wishful thinking, because regulators say you need to destroy the products." Alfred V. Almanza, administrator of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said, "it's a prohibiting activity" that could lead to criminal prosecution.
USDA officials have said it is "extremely unlikely" that the recalled meat poses a risk to human health. No illnesses have been reported from the recalled meat.
But downer cows are more likely to carry mad-cow disease, which causes a rare, but fatal, brain disorder in humans. The government generally prohibits such animals from entering the food supply, but some are permitted to be slaughtered if they clear further inspection by a USDA veterinarian.
Under the USDA's estimate, if the Hallmark/Westland plant had allowed every downer cow to be slaughtered, the risk of human exposure to mad-cow disease would be increased by 0.13%, Dr. Raymond told the lawmakers.
Write to Jane Zhang at
[email protected]
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The USDA Losing Credibility Day By Day................