U.S. Department of Agriculture officials have escalated their probe of a Los Angeles County meatpacking company into a criminal investigation, according to a notice issued over the weekend.
Last month, I wrote about the initial recall of 430 tons of beef, packaged at Montebello-based Huntington Meat Packing, in context of the New York Times’ recent articles on lax practices in beef processing. Poor controls in beef handling can breed the kinds of dangerous bacteria that traumatized at least one woman who was paralyzed after E. Coli exposure.
The USDA announced over the weekend that it expanded the recall by an additional 49 tons, which is roughly equal to the weight of 49 Volkswagen Beetles. The affected meat, which includes beef and some veal, was sent to restaurants and hotels throughout California. (Food safety tips are at this government Web site and are available by asking “Karen,” the USDA’s online health guru.)
On the enforcement end of this case, the agency said it brought officials from its inspector general's office to accompany food safety inspectors, who are seeing some troubling practices. The agency is calling the beef "adulterated" because it was made under "unsanitary conditions," the press release says.
The release also says that inspectors determined that the newly recalled 49 tons of meat were produced in variance with the company’s policies, leading inspectors to conclude “that the food safety records of the establishment cannot be relied upon to document compliance with the requirements." So inspectors "acted to remove the products from commerce.”
The aggressive approach to beef seems to be a new one for the USDA, if the criminal cases its inspector general's office describes in press releases are any evidence. The department’s criminal enforcement arm issued no press releases from 2002 until 2007, the year Michael Vick was prosecuted under a USDA statute related to dog fighting.
Since then, the agency seems to have primarily gone after people defrauding the food stamp program and the USDA's own employees, one of whom operated an online prostitution business on the federal clock.
But protecting the food-consuming American public? It seems that the USDA has not been on that case. Last year it criminally prosecuted one man accused of shipping formaldehyde-laced feed meant for calves. The year before it went after a Florida man for illegally trafficking orchid plants.
Food advocates and experts may take note now, it seems, as the government seems on track to protect beef-eating humans with the same powers it previously reserved for the flora and fauna.
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