Meat Industry INSIGHTS Newsletter

971121 USDA Says "No New Beefamerica Recalls Expected"

November 3, 1997

WASHINGTON - USDA will continue to monitor meat processing operations closely at a BeefAmerica Inc. plant in Norfolk, Neb., but does not expect that an additional meat recall is necessary at this .

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service spokeswoman Jacque Knight said the Norfolk facility remains technically suspended. But USDA allowed the facility to reopen after company officials put together a plan to correct a number of sanitation and product contamination problems, she said.

Last week, USDA sent BeefAmerica a letter notifying the company that it would withhold inspections at the Norfolk plant because of several sanitation concerns.

By witholding inspections, USDA effectively shut down the BeefAmerica facility because firms cannot ship meat products without USDA's inspection mark on them.

Earlier last week, USDA announced that BeefAmerica was recalling nearly 169,000 pounds of ground beef produced on Oct. 21 due to contamination with the potentially deadly E. coli O157:H7 bacteria.

USDA's decision was based on various sanitation problems found at the Norfolk plant after the E. coli incident. Those include fecal contamination on some meat products, water condensation, peeling paint near processing areas, and dripping hydraulic fluid from a pipe.

BeefAmerica said it had worked with USDA over the weekend and that the problems cited by USDA were with documentation and not with the production process.

The company said USDA inspectors returned to work as usual at the plant and would again approve meat that passed .

Knight said USDA had not found any evidence that meat products produced in the plant after Oct. 21 was contaminated with E. coli bacteria and no additional recalls were expected at this time.

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