Federal officials said Thursday that more than a third of the meat recalled Sunday in the largest meat recall ever went to federal nutrition programs, and that 15.5 million pounds of that are still being traced.
About 50.3 million of the 143 million pounds of meat recalled by Westland/Hallmark Meat were sold to federal programs, including the school lunch program.
Of that, 19.6 million pounds were consumed and 15.2 million pounds have been found, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
The department also said that all products that contained any of the recalled meat should not be consumed. That could include many more millions of pounds of product, ranging from spaghetti sauce to canned ravioli.
"It's really unprecedented given what appears to be no illnesses and an exceedingly low risk," said William Marler, a prominent plaintiff's attorney specializing in food-safety cases.
The USDA told food industry representatives earlier this week that manufacturers of products in which Westland beef was commingled with other beef would not have to notify their customers to return or destroy product, Marler said. But USDA officials said Thursday that the recall would not be handled any differently than other recalls.
ConAgra Foods said it had not yet removed any product and was "looking into how or if" Sunday's recall affects the company.
The recalled products include meat processed for the past two years. The USDA said earlier that it believed most of it has already been consumed. In recent years, the Westland plant produced about 20% of the ground meat in the federal school lunch programs.
The health risk of the recalled meat is considered minimal, according to the USDA. None of the meat has been found to be contaminated.
The USDA ruled Westland's meat unfit for human consumption because the slaughterhouse didn't follow proper procedures when handling cattle that couldn't walk after initially passing inspection.
So-called downer cattle are not allowed in the food supply because they carry a higher risk of mad cow disease, E. coli and salmonella contamination.
Problems at the plant were exposed by the Humane Society of the United States, which had an undercover worker with a video camera at the plant. The camera caught crippled and sick animals being pushed with forklifts.
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