Meat Industry Pushes for Recall Cutback

School lunch programs received big chunk of problematic beef

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 22, 2008 1:08 PM CST

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Meat Industry Pushes for Recall Cutback — A worker walks on top of cattle carcases scraps dropped into a parked truck at the Hallmark Meat Packing slaughterhouse in Chino, Calif. Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008. Video footage showed workers at Hallmark Meat Packing repeatedly kicking cows and ramming them with the blades of a forklift as the animals... (Associated Press)

The meat industry is trying to convince the USDA to ease up on the largest meat recall in the country's history, the Wall Street Journal reports. Government officials entertained the possibility of exempting products made up only partly of the recalled beef but apparently decided against relaxing the action. “The recall is as it was issued,” said a spokeswoman.

Some 50 million pounds of the 143 million pounds of recalled beef went to federal school-lunch programs. Like most of the rest of the meat, 20 million pounds have already been eaten, but 15 million pounds are missing. All of the meat that went to schools will be destroyed, even if the USDA relents and agrees to exempt some meat from the recall. (More Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. stories.)

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