Kindgo
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ConAgra poised to expand meat recall
July 19, 2002 Posted: 2:06 PM EDT (1806 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/diet.fitness/07/19/meat.recall.reut/index.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- ConAgra Foods Inc., one of the nation's largest food makers, was expected to expand a recall of ground beef by 18 million pounds due to potential contamination with a deadly bacteria, U.S. Agriculture Department sources said on Friday.
ConAgra on June 30 voluntarily recalled 354,200 pounds of hamburgers from its Greeley, Colorado plant because of an outbreak of E.coli 0157:H7 that sickened at least 18 people.
E. coli O157:H7 can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and kidney damage. Children and the elderly are the most at risk.
A ConAgra spokesman declined to comment on another recall, saying only that the company has had talks with the USDA over the past week about its Colorado plant.
However, a USDA source said the company would pull another 18 million pounds of its ground beef off the market. An official announcement was expected later on Friday.
USDA sent an investigative team to the Colorado plant after the first recall.
EXTRA INFORMATION
Interactive: What is E. coli?
E. coli O157:H7 can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and kidney damage. Children and the elderly are the most at risk.
A company spokesman said the Omaha, Nebraska-based company has held discussions with the USDA for about a week regarding its Greeley, Colorado, beef-processing plant. ConAgra voluntarily recalled about 354,000 pounds of hamburgers from that plant on June 30 due to an E.coli outbreak.
"We can confirm that we are in discussions with the USDA and we've been working closely with them over the past week, reviewing protocol with our plant in Greeley, Colorado, and reviewing our records," said the spokesman, Jim Herlihy.
The largest U.S. food recall for E.coli 0157:H7 contamination was in the summer of 1997 when Hudson Foods withdrew about 35 million pounds of ground beef after 15 people in Colorado fell ill, according to the USDA.
Hudson was purchased by poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc. one year later.
News of an expanded meat recall was expected to shake up the U.S. cattle market, which has seen soaring supplies in recent months. Beef supplies are growing on a combination of slumping export demand and a drought in Plains states that has destroyed grazing lands and forced ranchers to slaughter their livestock.
The USDA has been scrambling to recover from criticism over how it handled the first ConAgra recall last month.
The department's Food Safety and Inspection Service admitted that it waited 10 days after federal meat inspectors first detected the E. coli bacteria in a Conagra sample before notifying the the company.
The USDA said this week it revised its food safety policy. Federal meat inspectors will immediately alert a beef company when its sample tests positive for E.coli, instead of waiting until an investigation is complete.
In the earlier ConAgra recall, USDA tests confirmed the bacteria's presence on June 19, but the company was not notified until after an investigation was completed on June 29. ConAgra announced its first recall the following day.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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