Meat recall
Food recalls have become synonymous with sickness in recent years, so public worry over the removal of 143 million pounds of beef from store shelves this week is understandable.
In 2006, bagged spinach was pulled from supermarkets after leaves tainted with E. coli bacteria left scores of people ill in more than half the states. Last year, a salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds led to a huge peanut butter and peanut product recall. And just last week, grocery chain Trader Joe’s announced it would stop selling single-ingredient items imported from China over concerns about the adequacy of that country’s food inspection system, which failed to catch contaminated pet food and fish, among other products.
The beef recall, the largest food take-back in the country’s history, was ordered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in response to the release of undercover video shot by the Humane Society at a Southern California slaughterhouse run by Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. The video footage showed cattle too sick to walk being dragged and shocked by company employees, shoved with forklifts and soaked with high-pressure hoses. The footage is unsettling.
Meat from downed cows is not supposed to be processed and sold under USDA standards. Such animals, if not treated or euthanized, wallow in their own waste, which can increase the risk of contamination from E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease.
But there’s a big difference between managing an increased risk of disease and actual, widespread sickness. And thus far, no illnesses have been attributed to beef products that originated from the California slaughterhouse.
Consumers would appreciate knowing that this recall is taking place to revoke the USDA’s seal of inspection from the meat, not because of the risk of illness.
“Everybody’s going, ‘Oh, a recall, that means death, that means sickness.’ That’s a different kind of issue,” said USDA spokesman Keith Williams. “This is a lower severity, where there would be a remote probability of sickness.”
Wesland/Hallmark’s treatment of its animals is deplorable and in clear violation of federal standards. But the horror associated with this campaign needs to be dialed back a notch. The next time the USDA decides to undertake its biggest recall ever, it needs to do a better job communicating the real risk to public health.