"meat recall" news and stories

We posted a few weeks ago about several schools banning the sale of beef that originated in California. At that time, the USDA was investigating.

It's now official.143 million pounds of frozen beef has been recalled by the USDA.

That's not a typo. It really is 143 million pounds. It's the largest meat recall in U.S. history. The beef comes from the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company and goes back to February 1, 2006. The USDA says that cattle at the California factory was mistreated and that there were other health regulations that weren't met. Officials have undercover video that shows sick and crippled cattle being mistreated by employees.

And this isn't just frozen meat that you get at the supermarket. Westland/Hallmark is a big supplier to fast food chains and schools. Officials think that most of the meat has already been eaten (though no sicknesses have been reported as of yet).

First we had the Topps frozen hamburger patty recall that eventually closed the company, and now comes this.

Cargill Meat Solutions has recalled almost 845,000 pounds of frozen patties. Several cases of sickness have been reported, and the company did find E. coli in their plant. The patties are sold under the name American Chef Selection of Angus Frozen Ground Beef Patties. The meat was produced in August and has been sold in Sam's Clubs locations across the country.

We've had so many food recalls this year, and they are usually over fairly quickly and the companies move on. But that's not happening in this case.

Topps Meat Company has announced that they are going out of business because of the beef recall it had to do last week. The recall was one of the largest in history, amounting to over 21 million pounds, and hurt the company so much that they can no longer stay in business. The company faces two lawsuits about the beef (so far) and the USDA has also been criticized for not acting sooner. Most of the beef was eaten by consumers who bought it, and 30 cases of E.Coli-based illness have occurred.

The closing of the Newark, NJ company means that 87 people will be out of work.