Huge beef recall ripples through food chain
With reports that thousands of retail stores, restaurants, schools, hotels, and fast food outlets received meat that was recalled as part of the largest beef recall in U.S. history, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is under increasing pressure to provide consumers with the names of retail outlets carrying recalled beef.
The recall involves some 143 million pounds of beef from the Westland/Hallmark Meat Packing Company, but the USDA has not disclosed which retail outlets stock consumer products containing the recalled beef. The USDA announced the recall on February 17, 2008 after the Humane Society of the United States released troubling videos of cattle that were too weak to walk apparently being prodded to slaughter.
Currently there is no federal law that requires the USDA to keep information on stores that sold recalled meat confidential. According to Consumers Union’s Jean Halloran, Director of Food Policy Initiatives, “That's the USDA’s own internal policy, and they can change it. In fact, they have been talking about changing it for the past two years—but they just haven't acted yet."
Because of USDA’s secrecy about the retailer names, Consumers Union helped to pass a law in California in 2006 that requires meat producers, distributors, brokers, and processors to notify the California Department of Public Health when products they have handled are subject to a USDA recall. The CDPH is then authorized to share the retailer information with local health officers who can reveal the names of the retailers to the public.
RIPPLE EFFECTS ON PROCESSED FOODS
The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets have reported that the initial beef recall on February 17, 2008 is broadening day by day. Two major packaged-food manufacturers, General Mills and Nestle, have initiated recalls of their own products because they contain beef from a supplier that got meat from the Westland/Hallmark plant.
General Mills says it has recalled 35,000 cases of Progresso Italian Wedding Soup. Nestle says it has recalled boxes of its Hot Pockets Philly Steak & Cheese sandwiches as well as some Hot Pockets Croissant Crust Philly Steak & Cheese sandwiches that were sold in two-pack boxes.
Wal-Mart has also pulled and destroyed any products on the shelves that came from suppliers who used the Westland/Hallmark meat.
CALLS FOR BETTER, FASTER NOTIFICATION
A coalition of consumer groups, including Consumers Union, already has asked the USDA to disclose retail outlets carrying recalled beef. In March 2006, the USDA proposed to change its rules and disclose the names of retailers involved in meat recalls, but has yet to take final action. The consumer groups recently asked Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer for an immediate change in policy. Read a copy of the letter. To join the effort, you can send a letter of your own.
Thanks to the California law that was enacted last year, consumers in that state now have access to some of the names of the retailers that received shipments from the recall. A partial list of the California retailers, which is incomplete and will be updated periodically, can be found on the California Department of Public Health’s Web site.
“We are delighted that the California law is starting to work and that California consumers now have some measure of power to protect themselves and their families in this huge beef recall,” said Elisa Odabashian, Director of Consumers Union’s West Coast Office. “But recalled meat was shipped beyond California’s borders, and because of USDA’s continuing secrecy about the names of the retailers, consumers in other states have no way of knowing if they purchased any of the recalled beef.”
WHAT TO DO WITH MEAT IN THE FRIDGE
Consumers Union advises California consumers with beef in their refrigerators and freezers that was purchased prior to the February 17 recall day, to either check the state's partial list of retailers and return it to the retailer; confirm that the retailer of their meat did or did not received shipments of the recalled meat; or simply discard the meat. “Because mad cow disease is believed to be transmitted through certain organs and central nervous system tissue of an infected cow, consumers may want to avoid eating tripe, brain, tongue and any other central nervous system meat,” Odabashian advised.
RELATED LINKS:
Not In My Food: Where’s the recalled beef? 2/08
Not In My Food: Actions and updates
Delays in Mad Cow Protection 7/07
USDA Q&A on Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. 2/08
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