Meat Industry INSIGHTS Newsletter

971225 USDA Nears Guidelines on Meat Reworking

December 5, 1997

Washington - The U.S. Agriculture Department will soon have draft guidelines for the re- working of hamburger by meat processors, the industry practice which was linked to the record recall of beef by Hudson Foods.

"This has been a high priority for us," Catherine Woteki, USDA undersecretary for food safety, said in an interview. "I'm expecting to get a set of recommendations very soon."

Woteki will review her staff's recommendations with an eye toward a possible agency rulemaking on the controversial issue. She declined to comment on how soon a rulemaking -- which would include a comment period for the industry and consumer groups -- might begin.

Hudson Foods recalled more than 25 million pounds of ground beef late last summer after several consumers in Colorado were sickened by the beef. Some of Hudson's frozen hamburger patties were suspected of harboring E. coli 0157:H7, a deadly form of bacteria that can cause hemorrhaging of the intestinal walls and kidney failure.

The recall became the largest in U.S. history after investigators discovered that Hudson had a practice of taking meat left in processing machines at the end of each day and mixing it the next morning with new batches of beef. The practice, known as re-working, made it difficult to track the suspected contamination of the batches of hamburger.

A federal grand jury has been investigating Hudson and its recordkeeping procedures for several months. Woteki confirmed the Hudson investigation was still continuing but declined further comment.

She said the planned USDA guidelines for re-working hamburger should come as no surprise to the industry at a time when the government is focusing greater attention on food safety issues.

"Companies should be examining their own policies and procedures" as part of USDA's roll- out of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points regulations, Woteki said.

The HACCP regulations require meat processors to prepare a written plan for monitoring food safety and will become effective next month for large meat companies.

Woteki also said the Clinton Administration would continue pressing Congress to give the USDA authority to order mandatory meat recalls and to impose civil penalties on violators.

The legislation met with a lukewarm reception in the Senate, and is being opposed by the U.S. meat industry as unnecessary. Under current law, the USDA cannot directly order a meat recall but it can pull meat inspectors from a plant, effectively shutting down a company.

"It remains to be seen how closely a final law is going to reflect our proposal," Woteki said.

Although the meat industry is adamently opposed to USDA recall authority, it has expressed less resistance to the same bill's plan to impose civil penalties against violators, Woteki said.

"We view this as not being out of line with the recall authority of other agencies," she said.

Woteki also said that the USDA had not yet made up its mind whether to support recently- introduced legislation to create a single food safety agency. More than a dozen U.S. agencies and departments -- including the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control -- now have a role in protecting the nation's food supply.

"We haven't reached any conclusion or position yet," Woteki said. "There are many ways of changing the government regulatory structure."

The USDA is awaiting the results of a review by the National Academy of Sciences on how U.S. food safety can best be protected, she said. The report is due next summer.

Consumer groups have argued that a single food safety agency would be more effective in coordinating and monitoring food safety than the crazy-quilt participation by agencies today. For example, under current law, the safety of a frozen cheese pizza is overseen by the FDA but a pepperoni pizza falls under the USDA's jurisdiction because of the meat topping.

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