Largest recall of beef ever…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has ordered the largest recall of beef ever by far, calling for the return of 143 million pounds of ground beef from a California slaughterhouse that supplies school lunch programs.

Westland/Hallmark Meat, based in Chino, California, was ordered to recall the 65 million kilograms of beef. The order follows the distribution Jan. 30 by the U.S. Humane Society of an undercover video that shows workers kicking sick cows and using forklifts to force them to walk.

The video and the widening scandal that followed raised questions about the safety of the meat because cows that cannot walk, called downer cows, pose an increased risk of mad cow disease.

The U.S. government has banned downer cows from the food supply.

Agriculture officials said the recalled meat posed little health risk, because the animals had already passed pre-slaughter inspection.

“The great majority has probably been consumed,” said Richard Raymond, the Agriculture Department’s under secretary for food safety.

Agriculture officials said the recall was necessary to find all the meat that had not been consumed and because the plant was not following the rules.

The company is recalling all its raw and frozen beef products produced since Feb. 1, 2006. Of the 143 million pounds recalled, 37 million was used to make hamburgers, chili and tacos for school lunches and other federal nutrition programs, officials said.

Officials noted that mad cow disease was extremely rare and said 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 video was embarrassing for the Department of Agriculture, as inspectors are supposed to monitor slaughterhouses for abuse. It surfaced after a year of increasing concerns about the safety of the meat supply and amid a sharp increase in the number of recalls tied to a particularly deadly form of the E. coli pathogen.

There were at least 21 recalls of beef related to the E. coli strain last year, compared with eight in 2006 and five in 2005.

No one is quite sure what caused the increase, though theories include the cyclical nature of pathogens and changes in cattle-feeding practices caused by the ethanol boom.

The recall Sunday was more than four times as large as the previous record setter, a 1999 recall of 35 million pounds of ground beef, officials said.

The new recall was prompted by a Department of Agriculture investigation that found that Westland/Hallmark had not always alerted federal veterinarians, as required, when its cows became unable to walk after passing inspection.

“Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection, FSIS has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall,” Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said in a statement. FSIS is the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Technically, the Department of Agriculture does not have the authority to recall meat. However, it can withdraw its inspectors from a plant, putting pressure on a company to issue a recall.

The announcement Sunday was classified as a Class II recall, indicating that the chances of health hazards were remote. Other large recalls involving E. coli have been Class I recalls, indicating that eating the product could cause serious health problems or even death.

Officials at Westland/Hallmark meat could not be located Sunday for comment.

Some critics said the recall had exposed gaps in the U.S. system for food safety.

“The recall is obviously the big news,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society. “The longer-term problem is the inadequacies of the inspection system. How can so many downers have been mistreated day after day within a USDA oversight system that was present at the plant?

“We need more boots on the ground at the plants,” he said.

The undercover video, shown on television and on YouTube and other Web sites, has caused an uproar since its release.

The Department of Agriculture started an inquiry and suspended the company as a supplier to federal nutrition programs. Steve Mendell, president of Westland/Hallmark, said afterward that he had been “shocked and horrified” by the videos and voluntarily suspended operations, pending the outcome of the federal inquiry.

On Friday, the San Bernardino district attorney, Michael Ramos, filed charges of animal cruelty against two employees who had been fired by the meat company. One of them, Daniel Agarte Navarro, was charged with five felonies and three misdemeanors; the other, Luis Sanchez, with three misdemeanors.