Frozen Beef Recalls Sink One Company,
Spark Calls for Reforms in Inspection
By J.J. PIERCE, QFFI Associate Editor

Pot pies and pizza also caught up in headline bad news. One major manufacturer changes cooking instructions for pot pies. Suppliers in Canada as well as in United States affected.

A series of headline-grabbing recalls, including several involving frozen food products, has drawn protests from consumer advocates and brought a century-old system of regulation and inspection in the United States into question.

Although criticism of the US government for lax enforcement began with products imported from China, including frozen catfish, it was heightened by scandals involving high profile domestic producers of basic food products.

First it was frozen hamburger patties, then it was pot pies, and then it was pizza. Recalls involving frozen burgers put one manufacturer out of business and even set off an international trade dispute. There have also been more than a dozen recalls of fresh beef.

One of the fresh ground beef recalls involved Minneapolis, Minnesota-headquartered Cargill; another American Foods Group of nearby Alexandria – the latter was suspected in one death. Overall beef recalls last year were twice the number of 2006, spurring calls by consumer groups for tighter regulation and enforcement.

Topps Meat Co., Elizabeth, New Jersey, closed its doors and declared bankruptcy after having to recall 21.7 million pounds of frozen beef patties – two years’ production. Topps had produced patties for Wal-Mart under the Sam’s Choice brand and private labels for ShopRite and Pathmark as well as its own brand and foodservice distributor brands.

The recalled pot pies, produced by diversified food company ConAgra, were implicated in nearly 300 cases of salmonella. But production resumed after a month, when ConAgra announced that a thorough inspection of its plant in Marshall, Missouri, hadn’t found a trace of salmonella.

Besides all varieties of Banquet pot pies, the recall affected private label pot pies under the Albertson’s, Food Lion, Great Value, Hill Country Fare, Kirkwood, Kroger, Meijer and Western Family brands. The allegedly contaminated pot pies were sold in all fifty states, as well as in Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands.

ConAgra put its pot pies back on the market after implementing new testing procedures at the plant and updating cooking instructions, advising consumers to heat the pies longer at higher temperatures. But some critics complained that the new instructions, which refer to different microwave levels and call for use of thermometers to make sure the pies reach 165° F, are too complicated for most consumers to follow.

The ConAgra recall cost the company $30 million, but the hamburger pattie recall doomed Topps. Formerly the largest supplier of frozen hamburger in the United States, it is now the target for lawyers: “If you or a loved one has suffered from contaminated meat, please contact a lawyer involved in a possible Topps beef recall lawsuit who will review your case at no cost or obligation,” read an appeal at lawyersandsettlements.com.

But the recall had international repercussions as well, because Topps had sourced some of its beef from a Canadian supplier, Rancher’s Beef Ltd., which has also gone belly-up, and now there are calls for new restrictions on imports of Canadian beef – something long sought by the US cattlemen’s lobby.

A joint US-Canadian investigation matched the DNA fingerprint of E. coli O157:H7 bacteria isolated from beef trim that had remained in storage with Rancher’s Beef Ltd. to samples taken both from victims of the food poisoning outbreak and packages. Some 40 people in eight states were said to have suffered from the outbreak.

“This is tragic for all concerned,” said Anthony D’Urso, chief operating officer, in a press release Oct. 5. “In one week we have gone from the largest US manufacturer of frozen hamburgers to a company that cannot overcome the economic reality of a recall this large. We sincerely regret the impact this will have on our employees, our customers and suppliers, and the community. Most of all, we regret that our products have been linked by public health agencies to recently reported illnesses.”

But according to a report at a website called The Consumerist, Topps should have seen it coming. Struggling to keep up with private label orders from Wal-Mart and other retailers, the company allegedly had cut back testing for E. coli from once a month to three times a year, and mixed tested and untested meat – domestic and imported – in its grinders. Federal inspectors found E. coli in three lots, but Topps’ record keeping was said to be so sloppy that it couldn’t rule out contamination of other lots long since shipped. A limited recall thus mushroomed into a total recall that sank the company.

The family of one victim is suing Wal-Mart, which sold frozen burger patties from Topps under the Sam’s Choice private label. Other store brands supplied by the company included ShopRite and Pathmark. Weeks after the recall, some of the boxed patties were still found at independent stores in New Jersey.

North of the border, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned the public Nov. 15 not to eat several types of Compliments brand frozen beef burgers because of possible E. coli contamination. The brand is a private label of Sobey’s, and the products included Super Eight, Omega Three and Balance Lean burgers.

Sobey’s supplier, Cardinal Meat Specialists, Mississauga, Ontario, said the burgers were distributed nationally. Officials were investigating whether the suspect beef was linked to late October’s national recall of meat distributed by Rancher’s Beef, which has since gone out of business.

In the pizza case, General Mills Operations, Wellston, Ohio, recalled approximately 3.3 million pounds of frozen meat pizzas because of fears they might be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 and therefore linked to an outbreak of illnesses.

The pepperoni, sausage and pepperoni and Canadian bacon and pepperoni pizzas are marketed under the Totino’s and Jeno’s brands. The frozen meat pizzas subject to recall were produced on or before October 30 and distributed to retail establishments nationwide.

As dozens of people recovered from E. coli infections linked to tainted patties, consumer groups, including Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America, insisted that the US Department of Agriculture be given the authority to issue recalls. Currently, the USDA can only recommend a recall to a company, or pull its products from shelves.

“Usually, companies want to protect their name and brand and cooperate. But without mandatory recall, USDA is at a disadvantage in those negotiations,” said Chris Waldrop, director of the CFA’s Food Policy Institute. Legislation proposed by US Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, would give the USDA authority to issue recalls, in addition to requiring that producers carry recall insurance to cover the cost of handling a recall.

The current inspection scheme is obsolete and wasteful, according to Michael R. Taylor, who headed the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service during the Clinton administration. Much as they did 100 years ago, USDA inspectors check hundreds of millions beef and pork carcasses and some eight billion chickens annually – devoting about two seconds to each bird, he said.

Such a system contributes little to food safety, the National Academy of Sciences concluded 20 years ago, Taylor noted. Instead, he added, the focus should be on checking for E. coli bacteria in beef, and other microscopic dangers in poultry.