The country’s top food safety official said late Sunday that America’s beef supply is safe.
The statement comes two days after a South Korean food official assured citizens that resuming U.S. beef imports would not bring harm to the country, which has banned American meat since 2003. South Korea suspended beef imports out fear of mad cow disease.
The speech by Dr. Richard Raymond, USDA Undersecretary for food safety, also came a day after a New York food company recalled more than 286,000 pounds of meat and poultry because it might be contaminated with the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes. The voluntary recall includes several different brands of fresh and frozen products made by Gourmet Boutique. (I’ve got a call out to SoCal supermarkets to see if any of them got these meat products. So far, Albertsons said “not us.” Stay tuned for more info on other markets.)
“I want to assure all consumers – both domestic and abroad – that the U.S. beef supply is among the safest in the world,” Raymond said in a written statement issued by the USDA late Sunday.
At the same time, Raymond said the 143 million pounds of beef recalled from Westland/Hallmark Meat Packing Co. in Chino was not a food safety issue. The plant is owned by Corona del Mar resident Steven Mendell.
Here’s his part of what he said:
“Evidence from the ongoing investigation demonstrates that, over the past two years, this plant did not always notify (federal) public health veterinarian when cattle became non-ambulatory…. .(prior to slaughter) inspection, as is required by FSIS regulations. This failure by Hallmark/Westland led to the company’s Feb. 17, 2008, voluntary recall of 143 million pounds of fresh and frozen beef products produced at the establishment since Feb. 1, 2006.”
Because of a complex set of safeguards that federal inspectors use to prevent mad cow disease exposure, “it is extremely unlikely that these meat products pose a risk to human health. The recall action was deemed necessary because the establishment did not comply with (federal food safety) regulations.”
“This recall was not about food safety,” Raymond said.
To read the rest of Raymond’s statement from Sunday, go to the USDA press release site.
OCR Q&A: Is America’s beef safe?
Nancy - How about reporting the alternative. If the USDA claims the recall was ‘not about food safety’ what was it about?
Do you just re-publish the USDA’s press releases or do you actually do some investigative reporting of your own?
How about telling us what the recall was about?
And it’s spelled ’slaughterhouse’
Thanks Doug for pointing out the spelling error. I’m horrified. I spun together the item late Sunday (my day off) when I first learned about it. Speed should NOT be an excuse for spelling errors, so I apologize for that.
As for your question about the other side of the story? I linked to a very lengthy Q&A on this matter. Did you read it? In that article, I talked to various experts who said this recall was about animal abuses, not food safety.
The big question: Why is the USDA clarifying its position now? It seems you have an opinion on this. Why not share?
Nancy
Thanks Nancy, I’ll read the links.
But I don’t get it. You don’t pull 143 million pounds of beef over abuse. You punish the abusers and fix the problem.
So the USDA pulled ‘possibly abused’ beef from the food chain? How can you tell it’s abused? Does it taste different? Let’s ask the cows…
If not about food safety, my understanding from your information is that it was punitive!!! I don’t know how much a cow weighs, but if that amount of humans were wasted, killed for nothing, it would be called “genocide” and is often, in equally obfuscating language written by the best lawyers available for the price, implied to be punitive in nature. “Nuthin’ wrong with our products, nope. It was pun-ee-tive.” What a mess. Once again, “Good job, Brownie.”