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US to recall 65 million kg of beef from sick cows
Tue, Feb 19, 2008 The Straits Times
LOS ANGELES - THE US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the country's largest beef recall to destroy 65 million kg produced by a California plant which slaughtered cows that were too ill to walk. However, the USDA said the vast majority of the meat - including 17 million kg that went mostly to schools - had probably already been eaten. Cattle weakened by disease are not supposed to enter the food supply because of the possibility they could suffer from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as mad cow disease, although officials said the danger to consumers in this case is minimal. The recall applies to beef slaughtered at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co in Chino, California, since Feb 1, 2006. The company has produced no meat since Feb 2 this year, when operations were suspended.

'Downer' cattle are not supposed to be used as meat unless a veterinarian determines that an animal stumbled or fell because of injury - a broken leg, for instance - that would not affect the safety of their meat.

But Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said his department has evidence that Westland did not call in veterinarians.

Mr Steve Mendell, president of Hallmark Meat Packing, and its distributor, Westland, declined to comment.

Some supermarkets immediately began removing Hallmark meat from their freezer shelves, but because the company suspended operations two weeks ago, it is unlikely that any of its fresh meat is still being sold.

Meanwhile, the amount of beef affected by the recall may be far larger than the 65 million kg from Hallmark because meat from different companies is often mixed as it goes through numerous processors.

At a USDA telephone briefing for retailers, school districts and food safety experts on Sunday, concerns were raised about beef that gets 'commingled', according to Humane Society president Wayne Pacelle, who was on the conference call.

He said a representative of the Costco warehouse club chain estimated that the total beef recalled may top 450 million kg.

USDA officials said the whole impact of the recall was difficult to estimate because beef from Hallmark was supplied through a 'huge pipeline', including numerous processors and distributors.

As an example, Mr Bill Sessions of the Agricultural Marketing Service told reporters: 'Coarse ground beef...goes into further processors, who make end items such as cooked hamburger patties, chili meat, taco meat, that type of thing, that then goes into a distributor, and then is distributed to a local school system.'

By that time, the food packaging is not likely to carry any indication of where the meat came from.

California Representative George Miller, who has been closely following the Hallmark case, on Sunday called for a congressional hearing into the USDA's inspection process.

He said that the 'severity of this issue for both our nation's schools and consumers' made it necessary for Congress to step in.

LOS ANGELES TIMES, ASSOCIATED PRESS