Little guys take heat in recall

Yesterday we heard about some poor slob making nine bucks an hour at the Hallmark/Westland slaughterhouse in Chino. (LABO). Today comes word from the WSJ that three USDA employees are on paid leave of absence pending ongoing government investigations. It'll be a while before it's all sorted out - specifically, why sick cows unable to stand up were allowed to be slaughtered. Their meat was then distributed to schools, markets and restaurants all over the country. That's supposedly a violation of USDA regulations, but news reports suggest that the beef industry has tried to relax those rules (and to reduce the scope of the nation’s largest-ever meat recall). What a surprise!! Frankly, it seems unlikely they'll ever know whether any of this meat sickened anybody - the list of establishments receiving Hallmark/Westland meat is so huge and the time frame so long that it's virtually impossible to make any direct connection. But the possibilities have to make you wonder – and not just about the meat supply. (I'm in the middle of eating a packaged chicken sandwich I bought at a market next to my office. I'm looking at the chunks of white meat. Seems OK, but how would I really know?)

By the way, the state of California was able to release a partial list of retail outlets that received the recalled meat because of a state law that was enacted last year. It turns out that the USDA does not release such information nationwide. The state law requires meat producers, distributors, brokers and processors to notify the California Department of Public Health when products they have handled are subject to a USDA recall. The department is then authorized to share the retailer information with local health officers. "We are delighted that the California law is starting to work and that California consumers now have some measure of power to protect themselves and their families in this huge beef recall," said Elisa Odabashian, director of the West Coast Office of Consumers Union. "But recalled meat was shipped beyond California's borders, and because of USDA's continuing secrecy about the names of the retailers, consumers in other states have no way of knowing if they purchased any of the recalled beef."