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USDA weighs new rules in recalls

But stores selling bad meat may not be IDd

By Erica Werner

Associated Press

March 27, 2008

 

WASHINGTON — Under pressure from the food industry, the Agriculture

Department

is considering a proposal to not identify retailers where tainted meat was sent

for sale except in cases of serious health risk, The Associated Press has

learned.

 

Currently, the government discloses only a recall itself. It does not list which

retailers might have received recalled meat. The same holds true for recalled

vegetables.

 

But consumer groups and Democratic lawmakers contend the public should have

access

to the names of retailers in all meat recalls.

 

The plan is being considered as the USDA puts the final touches on a proposed

disclosure

rule. It had lingered in draft form for two years until getting pushed to the

forefront

in February, when 143 million pounds of beef were recalled by Westland/Hallmark

Meat Packing Co. in Chino, Calif., after undercover video by an animal-rights

activist

showed workers abusing crippled cows.

 

Had the rule under consideration been in place last month, consumers wouldn't

have been told whether their supermarkets sold meat from Westland/Hallmark.

 

Agriculture Department spokesman Chris Connelly confirmed Wednesday that the

agency

is weighing whether to make naming the stores mandatory only for so-called Class

I recalls, which pose the greatest health hazard. The Chino recall was

categorized

as Class II because authorities determined there was minimal risk to human

health.

 

Partly for competitive reasons, industry groups support the way recalls are

currently

done, where a description of the recalled product is released by the Agriculture

Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service along with some other

information

including where it was produced.

 

Retailers must remove recalled meat from their shelves, but there's no

requirement

that they notify their customers about meat already sold, though some take

voluntary

steps to do so.

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

 

 

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure

that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain