Beef Recall Raises Worry On Industry Oversight

By DAVID KESMODEL, LAUREN ETTER and JANE ZHANG

This weekend's announcement of the largest meat recall in U.S. history raises new doubts about the Department of Agriculture's ability to adequately monitor the nation's meatpacking facilities.

Lawmakers and consumer advocates again are calling for tighter oversight and regulation of the nation's meat supply after Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., Chino, Calif., issued a recall of 143 million pounds of beef products, some of which were for school-lunch programs. The department said most of the meat probably has been consumed. No illnesses have been reported.

The recall came about three weeks after the Humane Society of the United States released an undercover video showing workers at the meatpacker's Chino plant forcing sick or injured cows into slaughter by kicking them or ramming them with forklifts. The government in most cases bars "downer" cows -- which can't walk or stand on their own -- from the food supply. It implemented the rule in 2003 because an inability to walk is a possible symptom of mad-cow disease, which can cause a rare but fatal brain disorder.

Related Video

Watch the video from the Humane Society that led to the meat recall. Warning: Contains graphic material

The recall again points a spotlight at the Department of Agriculture, which has on-site inspectors who are supposed to ensure that downer cows aren't slaughtered for food.

"The failure of the inspection program to stop the company's egregious behavior is just another sign of how USDA's thousands of meat inspectors are locked into a rigid, antiquated form of inspection that is not filling the bill on either food safety or animal welfare," said Mike Taylor, a former Agriculture Department food-safety official and now a research professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health in Washington.

Kenneth Petersen, assistant administrator for the Office of Field Operations at the department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said it is fair to raise questions about the inspection program, but "it's premature to make conclusions of what occurred."

The department, led by the Office of Inspector General, is investigating whether the company or federal inspectors were at fault, he said.

The recall covers meat produced at the plant since February 2006, and is the largest in the U.S. since a recall of 35 million pounds of meat in 1999. The Hallmark/Westland plant voluntarily closed Feb. 1, pending an Agriculture Department investigation.

In a letter on the company's Web site Feb. 3, President Steve Mendell told customers he was "shocked and horrified" by the video and the company complies with all Agriculture Department requirements. Mr. Mendell didn't respond to a request for comment.

Write to Jane Zhang at Jane.Zhang@wsj.com