Robert
02-17-2008, 11:45 PM
The Department of Agriculture on Sunday ordered by far the largest recall of beef ever, calling for the return of 143 million pounds of ground beef from a California slaughterhouse that supplies school lunch programs across the nation, including Houston and other areas around Texas.
The acknowledgment came after the Humane Society of the United States distributed an undercover video Jan. 30 that showed workers at a Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. plant kicking sick cows and using forklifts and electric shocks to force them to walk.
The video raised questions about the safety of the meat because cows that cannot walk, called downer cows, pose an added risk of mad cow disease. The federal government has banned downer cows from the food supply.
Agriculture officials said there was little health risk from the recalled meat because the animals already had passed pre-slaughter inspection. In addition, the officials noted that while mad cow disease was extremely rare, the brains and spinal cords from the animals — the area most likely to harbor the disease — would not have entered the human food chain.
The acknowledgment came after the Humane Society of the United States distributed an undercover video Jan. 30 that showed workers at a Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. plant kicking sick cows and using forklifts and electric shocks to force them to walk.
The video raised questions about the safety of the meat because cows that cannot walk, called downer cows, pose an added risk of mad cow disease. The federal government has banned downer cows from the food supply.
Agriculture officials said there was little health risk from the recalled meat because the animals already had passed pre-slaughter inspection. In addition, the officials noted that while mad cow disease was extremely rare, the brains and spinal cords from the animals — the area most likely to harbor the disease — would not have entered the human food chain.