Impact of beef recall widens


The nation's largest meat recall could grow into its largest food recall as companies destroy products with any amount of the 143 million pounds of beef recalled last week.

The recall's scope is unprecedented, says the Grocery Manufacturers Association. The value of foods affected -- including soups, sauces, burritos and bouillon cubes -- could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, a senior GMA official says.

"It's going to be very, very sizeable," says Craig Henry, the group's senior vice president. "We've never had a recall like this." He says it will take weeks to find out how many products the recalled beef went into.

Westland/Hallmark Meat of Chino, Calif., recalled the beef on Feb. 17 after federal officials found it had allowed cattle that could not walk to be slaughtered without notifying a federal inspector to do a required second inspection. Those cattle are generally prohibited from the food supply because they carry a higher risk of mad cow disease and bacterial contamination.

There is no evidence the beef, produced over the past two years, was contaminated. There have been no reports of illness. The U.S. Department of Agriculture classifies the risk to consumers as "remote," making the Westland recall less serious than most.

The food industry ended the week in a flurry of conference calls as companies assessed the impact of the USDA's latest instructions to recall products containing beef commingled with even tiny amounts of Westland beef. Earlier, the USDA had indicated that only products containing only Westland beef might be affected, Henry says.

Much of the meat has likely been eaten, the USDA says. But canned products may be consumed years after they're made.

The breadth of affected products took even department critics by surprise. "It's almost overkill," says William Marler, a leading plaintiff's attorney in E. coli cases. Given the low risk, destroying so much food "is just an enormous waste of resources," he says.

"Recalls should be reserved for products that put the public at risk, and this isn't it," Marler says.

Some food safety experts say the department may be reacting to criticism that it has been lax on enforcement. "It's a big political move," says Ted Labuza, a food safety professor at the University of Minnesota.

The USDA says it isn't treating this recall differently than others. Officials have been concerned about a jump the past year in meat recalls linked to E. coli contamination. They have asked companies to recheck their prevention plans and are looking at whether inspectors are adequately trained.

The Westland recall will test the ability of companies to track ingredients. Beef used by a soup maker may pass through numerous companies that grind, season and blend it with other products, Henry says. The best way for consumers to find out if their products contain Westland beef is to call the producer, he says.

The USDA requires the beef products be incinerated, put in a landfill or cooked down to make meal not allowed in human or pet food, according to Westland.

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