When is a Recall Not a Recall?
When it Involves Meat
by Erik Marcus
Ball Park Franks may plump when you cook 'em, but a
recent batch may also
kill when you eat 'em. A large amount of meat,
infected with the deadly
Listeria monocytogenes bacteria, got through USDA
inspection last summer
and reached supermarkets in ten states. People first
started to get sick in early
August, but it wasn't until December 22 that the
recall was announced. In
that time, 40 people were stricken by the bacteria,
four of them fatally.
Officials suspect that the tainted meat went into Ball
Park Franks, as well as a number of brands of
pre-cooked luncheon meats manufactured by the Sara Lee
Corporation. Denis Stearns, a partner at
Marler Clark law firm, which has represented numerous
food poisoning victims, says, "If it is
confirmed that this outbreak is linked to cold cuts,
then there is truly cause for alarm. This is food that
is intended to be eaten without being cooked. There's
nothing a consumer could have done to avoided
this. It's like being sucker-punched."
One thing meat eaters definitely should not do is to
believe that current meat recall procedures deliver
meaningful consumer protection. Think of a product
recall and you probably envision dangerous goods
being pulled from store shelves, then returned to the
manufacturer for disposal. For most industries, the
return of hazardous products is exactly what happens
when a recall is announced. But for the meat
industry, recalls often have a very different result.
When a meat company publicly announces a recall,
much of the meat in question has often already been
eaten. Thanks to the considerable amount of time
that typically passes between the shipment of a bad
batch of meat and the announcement of a recall,
US consumers purchase and consume hundreds of
thousands of pounds of tainted meat each year.
The practice of foisting bad meat on an unsuspecting
public has been going on for well over a hundred
years. But recent advances in meat production were
supposed to have markedly improved the situation
this year. In January 1998, the USDA's Food Safety
Inspection Service began implementing a
high-tech Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point
(HACCP) program for improving food safety.
Despite the significant advances of HACCP, the
presence of the deadly E. coli 0157 bacteria in the
meat supply appears to be growing. In the month of
November alone, the amount of beef recalled for
E. coli contamination exceeded the amount recalled
during the entire year of 1995. A look at
November's recalls shows a regulatory system in dire
need of reform.
On November 5, IBP, the world's biggest beef producer,
recalled an entire day's production, totaling
556 thousand pounds of beef, due to E. coli 0157
contamination. The USDA, typically a cheerleader
for the meat industry, did its best to put a positive
spin on matters. Margaret Glavin, acting
administrator of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection
Service, said "We are encouraged the company
has taken immediate action to recall this product."
The problem, however, is that by the time of the
recall's announcement, IBP's contaminated beef had
already been distributed in 14 states. No word yet
as to what percentage of this beef was eaten by people
before it could be recalled, but IBP's own
press release says, "It is believed much of the ground
beef has already been consumed."
Fifteen days later, government officials announced an
even larger E. coli 0157 recall. This one,
involving 601 thousand pounds of beef, was issued by
Glenmark Industries of Chicago. Here, the
prospects of protecting consumers are even worse than
with the IBP recall -- the beef in question was
produced back in June, and 360 thousand pounds of the
beef have already been sold to consumers. It's
probable that most of this tainted beef has already
been eaten, but the USDA's Food Safety Inspection
Service issued the recall anyway in the hopes of
finding consumers "who may still have it in their
freezers."
November 24 brought the month's third major E. coli
recall, this time involving 359 thousand pounds of
beef produced by the Colorado Boxed Beef Company.
Chances for a meaningful recall on Colorado's
product are by far the bleakest of the bunch--the
recall wasn't issued until November 24, yet it targeted
fresh beef with sell-by dates between November 6 and
November 11.
In each of these three cases, the beef companies were
able to sell much or practically all of their
tainted beef at full market value. Not only did all
three companies avoid fines for endangering
consumers, but they were even allowed to pocket their
usual profits for all tainted beef that was eaten
before it could be recalled. In all, November's three
recalls signify that around a million pounds of
potentially contaminated beef has been eaten by
people. Children are especially vulnerable to E. coli
infections, and just one mouthful of under-cooked
contaminated hamburger can be enough to kill a
child.
In 1997, of the 3.1 million pounds of meat specified
for recall, only 1.3 million pounds was recovered.
The remaining 1.8 million pounds of contaminated meat
was eaten by consumers. These 1997 figures
do not take into account an enormous 25 million pound
beef recall still under investigation, but here too
USDA officials acknowledge that a substantial but
still undetermined percentage of the contaminated
beef was eaten by consumers.
Meat safety is one problem with an easy solution, but
it requires the USDA to side with consumers and
to get tough with the industry. There needs to be
testing in place in every US slaughterhouse so that
bad meat is detected before it can be allowed to ship.
The USDA should combine improved testing
with hefty fines that are handed down every time
contaminated meat reaches consumers. Rather than
wait passively for the USDA to act, consumers have a
simple way to protect themselves and send a
message -- they can replace their meat-centered meals
with recipes made from vegetables, grains, and
beans.
Erik Marcus is the author of Vegan: The New Ethics of
Eating
