Meat Stinks - 3 stories from around the world

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Date 07:49 Jul 23

Subject LIBERATE: Meat Stinks - 3 stories from around the world

 

An email to rs of the Animal Liberation NSW mailing list

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Europe-wide alert over Pill hormone in animal feed

By Stephen Castle in Brussels

19 July 2002

 

New fears over food safety were raised yesterday when it was revealed that

a hormone used in the contraceptive pill had contaminated animal feed,

affecting meat products in Britain and 10 other European Union countries.

 

 

The Food Standards Agency said meat from 300 pig carcasses supplied by a

Belgian farm which used the contaminated feed has entered the food chain.

 

The agency added that 15,000 tons of molasses which may have contained

suspect glucose had also been destroyed in Hull.

 

The agency insisted that the quantities of medroxy- progesterone acetate

(MPA) which could have been consumed were not sufficient to affect human

health. But the saga highlights the difficulties of controlling health risks

within the EU's single market.

 

The contamination began at a pharmaceutical plant operated by an Irish

subsidiary of the US company Wyeth, which makes hormone-based drugs.

 

Water left over from the process which gives the Pill a sweet coating was

shipped from the plant in Newbridge, County Kildare, via a waste brokerage,

to a Belgian reprocessing company Bioland, which supplies glucose syrup

to animal feed makers.

 

Bioland exported large quantities of potentially contaminated products to

 

animal feed-makers in the Netherlands and from there, the feed has been

sold to other European countries.

 

Some 7,000 Dutch farms have been placed under surveillance with animal

movements restricted; 800 are being kept under watch in Belgium and another

2,100 in Germany.

 

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story16259

 

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CONAGRA RECALLS 19 MILLION POUNDS OF BEEF (8.6 MILLION KG), SECOND LARGEST

 

RECALL IN U.S. HISTORY, PAST HISTORY INDICATES CONSUMERS WILL LIKELY " BRUSH

 

OFF " SERIOUSNESS OF THREAT

from the AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER

July 19, 2002 #175

 

REUTERS: ConAgra Foods Inc. has launched the nation's second-largest recall

 

of ground beef because of potential contamination with a deadly bacteria

that has sickened at least 16 people, the U.S. Agriculture Department said

..

 

The decision by the No. 2 U.S. food company to pull a total of nearly 19

million pounds of fresh and frozen ground beef at the height of the summer

 

barbecue season ranks second to Hudson Beef's record recall of 35 million

 

pounds of meat in 1997. The news sent shares down seven percent.

 

ConAgra is the-second biggest supplier of food and meat after Kraft Foods

 

Inc. Its brand names include Hunt's Ketchup and Healthy Choice Meals.

 

The number of illnesses from ConAgra beef tainted with E. coli 0157:H7 was

 

difficult to pinpoint. The U.S. Centres for Disease Control said it

confirmed at least 16 people were sickened by the ConAgra beef in Colorado,

 

California, Michigan, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming. Another six

illnesses were under investigation. Earlier, USDA officials said at least 19

people had fallen ill because of the tainted beef.

 

ConAgra agreed to recall almost 19 million pounds of beef, after first

pulling 354,200 pounds from the market on June 30. The ground beef was sold

in 21 states. " This action is being taken as a cautionary measure to ensure

the protection of public health, " Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said.

 

" Public health is our number one priority. "

 

E. coli O157:H7 can cause bloody diarrhoea, dehydration and kidney damage.

Children and the elderly are the most at risk.

The 19 million pounds of additional meat recalled was produced at the

company's Greeley, Colorado, plant between April 12 and July 11, the USDA

said. Some of the meat was sold at Safeway grocery stores, although the

USDA refused to detail how much.

 

The USDA said it would publish a list of meat inspection lot numbers that

were stamped on packages of ground beef that has been recalled. Consumers

should return the meat to a grocery store or discard it. " We have no way of

knowing for sure how much (beef) is in consumers' hands, " said USDA

Undersecretary Elsa Murano.

 

A ConAgra spokesman declined to comment, saying only that the company has

held talks with the USDA over the past week.

 

The recall also raises questions about ConAgra's pending deal to sell off

more than half its fresh meat processing operations to a private investor

group led by Hicks Muse Tate & Furst. The deal, valued at about $1.4

billion, was intended to allow ConAgra to focus more on branded consumer

products such Healthy Choice and Armor meats. Analysts said the huge recall

may not dampen consumer demand for grilled hamburgers at summer picnics.

" I continue to be amazed at the capacity of the American consumer to brush

 

off most recalls,' " said Credit Suisse First Boston food analyst David

Nelson. " I've yet to see Americans get overly concerned about this type of

thing. "

 

Consumer groups criticized the Bush administration for delays in recalling

the ConAgra beef. The department's Food Safety and Inspection Service

admitted that it waited ten days after federal meat inspectors first

detected the E. coli bacteria in a ConAgra sample before notifying the

company.

 

An embarrassed USDA this week revised its food safety policy to require

federal meat inspectors to immediately alert a beef company when its sample

tests positive for E.coli. Inspectors will no longer wait until an

investigation is complete before notifying a company. Carol Tucker Foreman,

food policy director for the Consumer Federation of America, said the USDA

was more concerned about protecting big agribusiness companies than

consumers.

 

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which represents ranchers, said

the recall showed the need for meat companies to invest in irradiation

technology that uses low doses of electrons or gamma rays to destroy

dangerous bacteria.

 

The largest U.S. food recall for E. coli 0157:H7 contamination was in the

summer of 1997. Hudson Foods first recalled 25 million pounds of its ground

beef when 15 people in Colorado fell ill. The firm eventually pulled a total

of 35 million pounds of beef off the market after investigators determined

 

that some of the tainted ground beef was reworked into batches of

non-contaminated beef. Hudson was purchased by poultry giant Tyson Foods

Inc. one year later.

 

The E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria is destroyed when meat is cooked to an internal

temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit.... (of course, how many people test

the temperature of their cooking...)

 

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FACTORY FARMS FANCY SECRECY (USA)

 

New laws being drafted in America will give unprecendented protection to

factory farmers, disallowing even meat inspectors from taking photographs

 

without the consent of the owner!

 

Full Story - http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13612

 

 

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