"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.]

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