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Experts Say Congress Must Fix Food Inspection System

Posted on: Tuesday, 19 February 2008, 06:00 CST

Congressional hearings should be held immediately to address serious breaches in federal guidelines governing meat-inspection in light of a 143-million-pound beef recall, the largest in U.S. history, food policy experts said yesterday.

Analysts were appalled that U.S. Department of Agriculture rules were flouted at Hallmark / Westland Meat Packing Co., in Chino, Calif., where crippled animals -- so called downer cows -- were slaughtered for human consumption.

Downer cows, incapable of walking, may carry mad cow disease.

Flawed inspection practices were brought to light in an undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States, which found that not only were disabled animals slaughtered for food, they were prodded with pitchforks and dragged by forklifts.

Policy experts yesterday not only called for an overhaul of the nation's antiquated meat inspection system -- USDA guidelines date back to 1906 -- but also sought a change in the way produce is overseen, a job of the Food and Drug Administration.

A major question posed yesterday is where's the beef? USDA is not required to list the names of retail outlets when tainted products are recalled.

"We don't know if any retailers in the New York area were shipped this product and we think that USDA should disclose it and they should disclose it right now," said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union in Yonkers, publishers of Consumer Reports.

Consumers Union, along with other advocacy organizations, pressed for change in USDA guidelines two years ago, asking that retailers be identified to help protect public health. Although the disclosure rule was approved, it has not been finalized, Halloran said.

Wholesalers need only list the lot numbers of tainted products. However, retailers repackage beef under their own labels.

Thomas Kullen, vice president of the King Kullen supermarket chain in Bethpage, said his distributor assured him that the tainted beef is not in his stores. "We do not carry any of that beef whatsoever," Kullen said. "I can say that with 100 percent certainty."

A spokeswoman for The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., parent company of the Waldbaum's and Pathmark chains, said those supermarkets did not receive any of the tainted beef.

Executive offices of the Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., based in Quincy, Mass., were closed for Presidents Day, as were those of Wakefern Food Corp., which operates ShopRite markets.

Consumer confidence in food safety nosedived after the contaminated spinach debacle in 2006. Public opinion could be headed further south in the wake of the massive beef recall, said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

She also is calling for a Congressional hearing with the hope of overhauling the food inspection system.

"We think Congress needs to act to modernize the law," DeWaal said. "There have been several examples over the last several years where our food safety laws are just not working."

Source: Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

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