dillydally wrote:
> "Whole Foods Recalls Beef Processed At Plant Long at Odds With USDA"
>
> By Annys Shin and Ylan Q. Mui
> Washington Post Staff Writers
> Sunday, August 10, 2008; A01
>
>
>
> Whole Foods Market pulled fresh ground beef from all of its stores
> Friday, becoming the latest retailer affected by an E. coli outbreak
> traced to Nebraska Beef, one of the nation's largest meatpackers. It's
> the second outbreak linked to the processor in as many months.
>
> The meat Whole Foods recalled came from Coleman Natural Foods, which
> unbeknownst to Whole Foods had processed it at Nebraska Beef, an Omaha
> meatpacker with a history of food-safety and other violations.
> Nebraska Beef last month recalled more than 5 million pounds of beef
> produced in May and June after its meat was blamed for another E. coli
> outbreak in seven states. On Friday it recalled an additional 1.2
> million pounds of beef produced on June 17, June 24 and July 8, which
> included products eventually sold to Whole Foods. The recall is not
> related to the recent spate of E. coli illnesses among Boy Scouts at a
> gathering in Goshen, Va.
>
> Whole Foods officials are investigating why they were not aware that
> Coleman was using Nebraska Beef as a processor, spokeswoman Libba
> Letton said.
>
> The chain's managers took action after Massachusetts health officials
> informed them Aug. 1 that seven people who had gotten sick from E.
> coli O157:H7 had all bought ground beef from Whole Foods. The same
> strain has sickened 31 people in 12 states, the District and Canada.
>
> So far, tests have not found contaminated Whole Foods beef, Letton
> said.
>
> That was small comfort yesterday to some shoppers at the Whole Foods
> on P Street NW.
>
> "I shop here because the standards are higher, so yes, this really
> concerns me," said Harry Harrison, 43, a District resident who shops
> almost exclusively at Whole Foods and buys beef at the store about
> once a week.
>
> This latest outbreak was first identified in late July among customers
> of Dorothy Lane Market, a small Ohio grocery chain. Dorothy Lane also
> bought meat from Coleman Natural Foods, which bought primal cuts --
> meat intended for steaks and roasts -- from Nebraska Beef. The E. coli
> strain found in the Massachusetts Whole Foods customers matches that
> Ohio strain.
>
> Nebraska Beef, which continues to operate, had already been under
> close scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Agriculture since late June.
>
> William M. Lamson Jr., a Nebraska Beef spokesman, said the company and
> the USDA had increased testing of its meat since then. It has found no
> E. coli O157:H7 in products made since July 8.
>
> He said that since June, Nebraska Beef has hired food safety
> consultants and undertaken an in-depth review of its processes. USDA
> is doing the same.
>
> "We will continue to investigate to see what is happening at the plant
> to see what they have to do to get a handle on their food-safety
> issues," said agency spokeswoman Laura Reiser.
>
> Nebraska Beef has a contentious history with the USDA. Over the past
> six years, federal meat inspectors have repeatedly written it up for
> sanitation violations, and the company has fought back in court.
>
> From September 2002 to February 2003, USDA shut down the plant three
> times for problems such as feces on carcasses, water dripping off
> pipes onto meat, paint peeling onto equipment and plugged-up meat wash
> sinks, according to agency records.
>
> After the third suspension, Nebraska Beef took USDA to court, arguing
> that another shutdown would put the company out of business. A judge
> agreed and temporarily blocked the department. The USDA and the
> company then settled out of court and inspections resumed. However,
> when federal meat inspectors found more violations, Nebraska Beef sued
> the department and the inspectors individually, accusing them of bias.
> The suit was later dismissed.
>
> In 2004 and early 2005, Nebraska Beef ran afoul of new regulations
> aimed at keeping animal parts that may be infected with bovine
> spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, out of the meat supply.
> Meat processors are required to remove certain high-risk parts, such
> as brains and spinal cords. Between July 2004 and February 2005,
> federal meat inspectors wrote up Nebraska Beef at least five times for
> not removing spinal cords and heads, according to USDA records
> obtained by Food and Water Watch, a Washington advocacy group. The
> company corrected the problems.
>
> In August 2006, federal meat inspectors threatened to suspend
> operations at the packing house for not following requirements for
> controlling E. coli. The company corrected the problem a week later,
> USDA records show.
>
> That year, Minnesota health officials blamed Nebraska Beef for
> sickening 17 people who ate meatballs at a church potluck in rural
> Minnesota. Several victims filed lawsuits against Nebraska Beef,
> including the family of a woman who died. The company last fall sued
> the church, arguing that the volunteer cooks did not cook the
> meatballs properly.
>
> Lamson said management has since asked that the suit be dropped.
>
> Given the history of violations, some consumer advocates question why
> the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service has
> not come down harder on the company.
>
> "It seems that FSIS is walking on eggshells when dealing with Nebraska
> Beef," said Food and Water Watch lobbyist Tony Corbo. "Instead, the
> agency keeps on coming up with Band-Aid approaches . . . while
> consumers keep on getting sick from eating products put into commerce
> by this company."
>
> "Companies are provided the opportunity to take corrective action,"
> USDA's Reiser said.
>
> Lamson said Nebraska Beef's relationship with regulators has changed.
>
> "We may have disagreed with USDA in the past, but we believe we have a
> very good relationship going forward . . . as exemplified by our
> cooperation and our voluntary recall," he said.
>
> The force behind Nebraska Beef is Nebraska businessman William Hughes.
> Hughes was a top executive at the now-defunct BeefAmerica. In 1997,
> the USDA yanked its inspectors from BeefAmerica's Norfolk, Neb., plant
> because of repeated sanitation violations, including contamination of
> meat with fecal matter. The company had to recall more than 600,000
> pounds of beef after the USDA traced E. coli O157:H7-tainted meat from
> a Virginia retailer to the Omaha packer. It filed for bankruptcy the
> following year.
>
> By then, Hughes was already part of a group of Nebraska Beef
> investors. The state gave the company additional financial support in
> the form of $7.5 million in tax credits under its Quality Jobs Act.
> Then-Gov. Ben Nelson (D), now a U.S. senator, sat on the three-member
> jobs board that approved the tax credits. Nelson's former law firm,
> Lamson, Dugan and Murray, represents Nebraska Beef.
>
> While state leaders welcomed Nebraska Beef and the jobs that came with
> it, residents who lived near the plant did not, and for more than a
> decade, they battled the company over manure strewn in the street and
> workers walking off the kill floor and into the local grocery store
> covered in cow splatter, said South Omaha resident Janet Bonet.
>
> Labor unions have also criticized Nebraska Beef over its labor
> practices. Since 1998, the company has had 47 workplace safety
> violations and paid more than $100,000 in fines, Occupational Safety
> and Health Administration records show. Lamson said most were not
> serious.
>
> In 2002, a National Labor Relations Board official voided a 2001 vote
> against unionizing Nebraska Beef employees. The NLRB official found
> that management interrogated workers about their union sympathies and
> threatened to fire, terminate benefits for or reassign employees who
> voted to unionize.
>
> Whole Foods Market said customers who bought ground beef between June
> 2 and Aug. 6 should throw it out. They can return the packaging or
> receipt to the store for a refund.
>
> [Staff writer Sindya N. Bhanoo contributed to this report.]
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...080802821.html

Oh, so it's Coleman, is it? Guess I'm not turning to that brand then!

--
Jean B.