(Feb. 17, 2008) -- In a Sunday afternoon action (Feb. 17), USDA announced that raw and frozen beef products distributed to school districts across the country for a period spanning two years -- from Feb. 2006 to Feb. 2008 -- for "school lunch programs" are now being "voluntarily" recalled by a Chino meat packing firm because some of its cattle "did not receive complete and proper inspection."
Inspections that are part of federal "mad-cow-disease" prevention rules weren't performed on some "downer" cows (animals that aren't ambulatory; can't walk/stand) "occasionally" said a USDA release. On Sunday (Feb. 17), USDA held a conference call briefing for reporters regarding the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. two-year product recall. LBReport.com provides salient portions (transcribed by USDA) below:
DR. RICHARD RAYMOND [Under Secretary for Food Safety]: ...I'm joined here today by Under Secretary Bruce Knight and Under Secretary Nancy Johner from MRP and FNS, and their staff folks to help answer any questions about the School Lunch Program, etcetera.
First of all, I do want to remind everyone that this is still an ongoing investigation and therefore we may not be able to answer all of your questions today. As a result of the USDA's ongoing investigation, the FSIS, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, just recently obtained evidence that the establishment had a practice that allowed them to occasionally slaughter cattle that had already passed ante mortem inspection but had become nonambulatory prior to entering the slaughter operation without notifying our public health veterinarian. This practice is not compliant with FSIS regulations.
Therefore, FSIS determined that their products were unfit for human food because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection.
In July of 2007 the Food Safety and Inspection Service did issue a final rule called Prohibition of the Use of Specified Risk Materials for Human Food and Requirements for the Disposition of Nonambulatory Disabled Cattle.
This rule states very clearly that nonambulatory disabled cattle are not allowed in the food supply and would not pass ante mortem inspection. The only exception to this rule is if an ambulatory animal passes ante mortem inspection and then goes down. At that time, the FSIS public health veterinarian must be immediately notified and he or she could then make a case-by-case determination that the animal is unable to walk due to an acute injury such as due to a broken leg and would therefore be eligible to move on to slaughter operations. Animals that do go down or suffer an acute injury are slaughtered separately and receive careful examination and inspection by the FSIS veterinarian. They are tagged and labeled and then slaughtered as U.S. Suspects.
If the public health veterinarian at the plant could not determine that the animal was down because of an acute injury, then he would condemn the animal. And if he determines the animal was down because of chronic illnesses, he would also condemn the animal. In these cases the public health veterinarian did not have that option to make those decisions.
So based on this noncompliance with FSIS regulations and also based on the results of the ongoing investigation, Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company is voluntarily recalling 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef products produced since February 1, 2006. The date February 1, 2006, has been chosen because that's what the evidence indicates that this practice was going on back to that date. We have no evidence preceding that date.
This recall is designated as a Class II because there is a remote probability that the recalled beef products could cause adverse health effects if consumed. We made this determination to designate this as a Class II based on a number of very important factors. These animals all passed ante mortem inspection, were observed at rest and in motion. The incidence of BSE in our domestic herd is extremely rare, and our interlocking BSE safety measures mitigate the risk of exposure. In addition, these animals were most likely born after the feed ban went into effect in 1997, as the plant tells us the average age of these animals is 5 to 7 years of age. And also all specified risk materials are removed so that they do not enter the food supply.
Our FSIS inspectors are present, not only daily in this plant, but continuously, as they are at all beef slaughter facilities, to assure among other things that SRMs or specified risk materials are removed in compliance with our regulations. That is a key point to make as we have seen some media reports that the inspectors were just there for an hour or two. But we have inspectors continuously at all slaughter facilities.
I do want to reinforce Secretary Ed Schafer's statement that we are very confident in the safety of the food supply, the interlocking mechanisms that we have in place do make the United States food supply the safest in the world. In this situation, this specific situation, I'll tell you again that all of these cattle did pass ante mortem inspection before going to slaughter. The federal government has this interlocking system of controls to protect the food supply and to prevent animals with signs of central nervous system disorders from ever entering the food chain.
BSE security measures do include the feed ban of 1997 that prohibits feeding ruminant protein to other ruminants, and there is an ongoing BSE surveillance program that began before we experienced our first BSE positive cow in the U.S. in December of 2003.
While the government has multiple regulations regarding BSE in place, the prevalence of the disease in the United States is extremely low. Since June 1, 2004, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has sampled more than 769,000 high risk animals, and to date only two animals have tested positive for BSE under our surveillance program, and both of those animals that were positive were born prior to the initiation of the FDA feed ban.
As another measure to reduce the risk of potential exposure to consumers, the Food Safety Inspection Service requires the removal of specified risk materials to prevent them from ever entering the food supply. This is far and away the most critical step to eliminating the risk of BSE exposure. Our FSIS line inspectors are stationed at designated points along the production line where they are able to directly observe SRM or specified risk material removal activities. Other offline inspection personnel verify the plant SRM removal, segregation of these SRMs, and then proper disposition practices. ...
So lastly, to remind you, these cattle that did enter the slaughter facility were nonambulatory, and that is why the recall has been done. But they had all passed ante mortem inspection earlier in that day, and they all had SRM removals under the supervision of our FSIS employees.
REPORTER: Thank you. I'm hoping for some idea of how much of this 143 million pounds went to School Lunch or other public feeding programs.
RON VOGEL: This is Ron Vogel with the Food Nutrition Service. We have about 37 million pounds of this product that have gone to the School Lunch Program and other domestic nutrition programs. Let me just say that that is the amount of meat from Westland going back to October of 2006. We have since the recall extends back to February 2006, we have yet to identify additional product that went to the School Lunch Program and other domestic assistance programs from February 2006 to October 2006. But right now we know 37 million pounds of the 143 that's been recalled went to domestic nutrition assistance programs. ...
REPORTER: Yes. Hi. This is David Brown from the Washington Post. Can someone estimate how much of this food is likely to be unconsumed at this point?
MR. VOGEL: This is Ron Vogel from the Food Nutrition Service. Are you referring to the 143 million pounds that we're recalling?
REPORTER: Right.
MR. VOGEL: The consensus here is that almost all this product is likely to have been consumed. That product which was not consumed that has gone to domestic nutrition assistance programs is already on hold...
REPORTER: Yes. I have a question for Dr. Raymond. I want to make sure I understood something you said, that the company, you had evidence that the company had a policy of violating USDA regulations in slaughtering downed animals after ante mortem without notifying USDA. Did I understand that correctly?
DR. RAYMOND: Yes, sir. To make sure everybody understands, I'll go through this again because it's critical. It was produced in noncompliance with our regulations. It's a part of our ongoing investigation. We're not going to go into a lot of detail. But what we do know is there were some cattle who passed ante mortem inspection at some point in the day. They were observed at rest and in motion by our public health veterinarian. When it came time for these animals to enter the slaughter facility, they became, some of them became nonambulatory. And at that point in time, the public health veterinarian is to be immediately notified and come out and do an inspection of that animal and determine whether it can go into the slaughter facility because it went down as an acute injury, or whether it should be condemned because it went down because of chronic illness or undisclosed injury. They did not call the public health veterinarian to do that procedure, and therefore they were noncompliant. ...
REPORTER: Okay. Do you want to say something about what consumers who may read these stories should conclude?
DR. RAYMOND: Because of the interlocking system that is in place, starting with the feed ban since 1997 and the fact that the average age of these cattle is 5 to 7 years of age, and the fact that with our surveillance of 175,000 (corrected below to 750,000) cattle that were at risk, either downers or displaying central nervous system effects, 175,000 (corrected below to 750,000) cattle were tested and only 2 tested positive, makes this extremely rare that on these rare circumstances where one of these cows was allowed to go to slaughter that they would be contaminated with BSE.
Secondly, they all have SRMs removed under the surveillance of FSIS inspectors that are there on a continuous basis, science tells us SRM removal reduces the risk of exposure to BSE by more than 99 percent.
REPORTER: Okay. And is that Secretary Raymond speaking?
DR. RAYMOND: Yes, Secretary Raymond. Now I thought I said 750,000 tested. Someone said I said 100,000. So I want to make sure that if I made an error in that statement I want to correct it. It was 750,000 cows that have been tested and 2 tested positive.
REPORTER: Okay. And SRMs are the brain, spinal cord?
DR. RAYMOND: That, and a few other things, yes. Brain and spinal cord are the two specified risk materials that carry the greatest risk of having prions present. ...
