Where’s the (Uncontaminated) Beef?

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Recalls continue

It has been the year of ground beef recalls as even Wegman’s, recognized earlier in ‘07 for changing the way supermarkets operate, has had to recall batches of meat possibly tainted with E. coli.

The Wegmans recall earlier this month was part of a larger recall, some 1 million pounds of ground beef, by Cargill Inc.

On Wednesday of last week, as we were all preparing our respective fowl, Topps Meat Co. announced it was filing for bankruptcy  in the wake of the second largest ground beef recall in U.S. history that resulted in the stoppage of production and massive lay-offs.  The cause in this case?  Much as we are seeing with widespread toy recalls in the holiday shopping season a lack of oversight on imports seems to be one of the main factors:

…the USDA said it would double its inspections of meat and poultry products imported from Canada. The agency cited the practices of Ranchers Beef Ltd., the Balzac, Alberta-based company that was identified as a likely source of E. coli-tainted beef supplied to Topps.

And today from the AP comes reports of another multi-state beef recall following two illnesses:

A company voluntarily has recalled nearly 96,000 pounds of ground beef products after two people were sickened, possibly by E. coli bacteria, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said.The beef products by American Foods Group include coarse and fine-ground beef chuck, sirloin and chop beef. They were distributed to retailers and distributors in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Virginia.The problem surfaced after an investigation by the Illinois Department of Health, which was looking into two reports of illnesses.

What is alarming is this case is that the mass-industrialization of the nation’s agribusiness resulted in an inability to track the tainted product:

The products subject to recall were produced on Oct. 10. They were distributed for further processing and repackaging and don’t have the company’s establishment number on the package.

Is there a pattern to the recalls?  Not neccesarily but there is a common thread: assumptions about imported product by a national private conglomerate in Topps Meat Inc., lack of oversight of shipped product by the national conglomerate Cargill Inc., one of the largest privately-owned companies in the U.S., that also engages in commodities trading; and the disbursement and repackaging of product by American Foods Group, one of the three largest privately-held meat producers in the country, so far from the point of production that tracing tainted items is virtually impossible.

To learn about local, organic meat options in your area, and for a great site in general, visit Local Harvest; you can also try the New York section of Eat Wild.

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