WASHINGTON - USDA forced the closure of a Hudson Foods Inc. plant suspected of supplying hamburger patties contaminated with the E.coli bacteria, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said Thursday.
The plant also has agreed to destroy all remaining burgers, officials said.
"There is nothing we take more seriously than the nation's food and the safety of the nation's food. Since the beginning of the outbreak, public safety has been our number one concern," Glickman said, announcing the temporary closing of the Hudson plant in Columbus, Nebraska.
In taking the action, Glickman also acknowledged the USDA cannot, under current law, unilaterally close a meat processing plant suspected of producing unsafe food. But the agency does have the power to pull its federally-required meat inspectors out of a plant, effectively closing it on a temporary basis.
"I do have the authority to withdraw federal inspectors. If necessary I will do that to halt operations until I am comfortable telling the American people that this food is safe," Glickman said.
Hudson, based in Rogers, Arkansas, said in a brief statement that it was suspending operations "out of an abundance of caution and to restore the public confidence."
The company previously said it was cooperating with a team of agency investigators and kept good records of the meat purchased by the plant and its procedures.
Hudson's customers include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Safeway Inc. and Burger King, a unit of Grand Metropolitan. All said they had destroyed packages of suspect meat.
Last week, the USDA asked Hudson to pull some 1.2 million pounds of hamburger patties from its customers as a safety precaution. About 16 people in Colorado initially were sickened by eating Hudson hamburgers that were linked to the E.coli bacteria, but two additional cases have turned up.
With the USDA announcement Thursday, that recall figure will jump to a total of some 25 million pounds of hamburger, Glickman said.
"We continue to monitor the situation very closely but all evidence suggests at this point that we have contained the outbreak," Glickman added.
Federal officials said they believe the E.coli contamination did not originate in the Hudson plant, and that investigators were checking seven suppliers of beef to the plant in early June.
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