Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Food Safety First
Earlier this month, Iowans were shocked to learn that California-based Hallmark/Westland, a slaughter and meatpacking establishment, forced "downer" cattle that could not walk into the slaughter line. These actions led to the largest beef recall in U.S. history, and it also served as a wake-up call about lax enforcement of our nation’s food safety laws and regulations.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service rules expressly prohibit the slaughter of downer cattle for human consumption and the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act requires humane handling of animals prior to slaughter. The prohibition of downer/downed cattle from the food supply is one of the safeguards necessary to prevent beef from cattle carrying a heightened risk of microbial contamination or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or "mad cow" disease), into the food supply.
On balance, as USDA says, even if the beef in question is consumed, the chance of it causing illness is remote. But it is deeply disturbing that Hallmark/Westland is the second largest supplier of beef to USDA’s Commodity Procurement Branch, which distributes food to children, the elderly, needy families and charitable institutions through programs such as the National School Lunch Program, the Emergency Food Assistance Program, and the Federal Distribution Program for Indian Reservations. The lunch program alone provides more than 30 million meals a day to schoolchildren across the United States.
I was especially concerned to learn that USDA records show Iowans have been eating beef products processed by Hallmark/Westland. I have learned that of the 27 million pounds of Hallmark/Westland meat purchased by USDA for distribution nationwide to federal food program recipients, 680,000 pounds went to Iowa, specifically to Des Moines and Mason City. This makes Iowa the sixth largest recipient of beef from this company.
When I first learned about the allegations against Hallmark/Westland in January, I immediately wrote to Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer in my capacity as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. I wanted to know how the Department of Agriculture supervised this plant and what it planned to do to make sure these beef products produced in violation of Federal regulations was removed from grocery store shelves, school cafeterias and other outlets.
The USDA acted promptly to shut down Hallmark/Westland and to request a recall. But this cannot be the end of the matter. Food recalls in this country are becoming all too frequent. As we have seen again and again, an outbreak of illness caused by unsafe food can exact a huge cost - in human health and lives and loss of consumer confidence. I have urged USDA to strengthen its inspection process to ensure that the Hallmark/Westland fiasco is not repeated. And I will work to hold USDA accountable so Iowans can be sure that the food they eat comes from sources that comply with our food safety and humane handling laws and regulations.
