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Date: Thu, 25 Sep 1997 00:52:38 -0400
From: allen schubert <alathome@clark.net>
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Meat Recalls Usually Not Made Public
------------------------------- 09/24/1997 17:13 EST
Meat Recalls Usually Not Made Public
By CURT ANDERSON AP Farm Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The public was never notified in federal recalls of more than 20.2 million pounds of meat and poultry since 1990, Agriculture Department records show.
The department's reason: Most of the 142 recalls -- more than half the 262 federal meat recalls during that period -- involved products that were distributed to restaurants or school cafeterias or were sitting in warehouses or on trucks and had not been sold at retail to consumers.
``It would not be identifiable by the consumer because they don't have it in a package that they can identify it,'' Jill Hollingsworth, a USDA deputy administrator involved in recalls, said Wednesday.
But consumer advocates say it is time for the Agriculture Department to rethink its policy, pointing out that someone could become ill from eating a bacteria-laced burger at a restaurant or a school cafeteria and never know the product had been recalled.
``It is not enough to just tell the restaurant there's a problem. It does make sense for the public to be notified,'' said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. ``Consumers need to know.''
The Agriculture Department held a public meeting Wednesday to discuss its current recall policies and hear from advocates such as DeWaal, along with meat industry groups. Catherine Woteki, USDA's undersecretary for food safety, said the session will help the agency determine if changes such as wider public notification are necessary.
``Our primary motivation for those policies is protecting the public health,'' she said in an interview. ``If there are things that we could do that would better protect the public health, we would certainly change our policy.''
Meat and poultry products involved in the unpublicized recalls had many problems, according to USDA records.
Some were recalled because of possible bacterial contamination, others because there were small pieces of bone, metal or plastic in them. And others were improperly labeled or had defective containers, the USDA records show.
For example, in one nonpublic 1993 case, Quaker Oats Co. recalled more than 1.8 million pounds of chili because of contamination with sand. More than 400,000 pounds was not recovered, according to the records.
In another large case, Bil Mar Foods of Zeeland, Mich., recalled over 1.2 million pounds of cooked beef because of bacteria problems in 1994. Almost 302,000 pounds of that beef was recovered.
It is USDA policy not to issue a public recall notice unless consumers have likely purchased a meat product and might still have some on hand. That was the case last month when Hudson Foods Inc. recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef because of possible E. coli contamination. Some of that beef was sold at retail.
Instead, officials work within the food service industry to determine who has control of the bad product and work with them privately to get it out of the system, said the USDA's Hollingsworth.
Industry officials said meat processors are the ones that would lose if all recalls were publicized, even those in which public health is not endangered. They said companies have every reason to work with government to remove the bad meat.
``There's a tremendous economic and business incentive to take adulterated product off the shelf as soon as possible,'' said Jim Hodges of the American Meat Institute.
Some industry officials expressed dismay that USDA has recently posted details of every meat and poultry recall since 1990 on an Internet site -- whether they were made public at the time or not.
``It has a potentially damaging effect on the companies involved,'' said Bob Hibbert, an attorney for the Eastern Beef Processors Association.
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman has already asked Congress for authority to issue mandatory meat and poultry recalls and for tougher civil penalties. A bill doing that, however, has not yet been introduced.
