The largest recall of beef in American history was ordered yesterday after the release of an undercover video showing injured or diseased cows being rammed with a forklift truck in an effort to get them on to their feet for slaughter (writes Chris Ayres in Los Angeles).

The recall involves 143million pounds (65,000 tonnes) of raw and frozen meat — enough to feed two burgers to every man, woman and child in the United States - although officials said that most of it had been eaten already. Schools in California and Washington State took beef off their menus yesterday as a precaution.

It is thought that some of the meat was sold to the In-N-Out Burger chain, which is popular with Los Angeles celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, who ate there after the 2003 Academy Awards. The restaurant group said that it stopped using the beef this month. The recall dates back to October 2006.

Federal regulations prohibit the slaughter of “downer cattle” — those unable to walk — as part of safeguards introduced last summer against “mad cow” disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The rule came from a case in 2004 when a cow in Washington state tested positive for BSE. Downer cattle are known to have weaker immune systems.

A hidden camera investigation by the Humane Society at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing company in Chino, California, found what appeared to be injured or diseased cattle being roused for slaughter with everything from a forklift truck to a high-pressure hose. One abattoir employee was filmed hitting a fallen cow in the face with a paddle.

The video, which was recorded at the end of last year, was handed to the police, who said that employees had used illegal methods in 11 different instances to force cattle into the slaughter box.

Ed Schafer, the US Secretary of Agriculture, said on Sunday that the federal Food Safety Inspection Service had suspended all of its contracts with the company. “I am dismayed by the inhumane handling of cattle that resulted in the violation of food-safety regulations,” Mr Schafer said. “It is extremely unlikely that these animals were at risk of BSE because of the multiple safeguards. However, this action is necessary because plant procedures violated USDA [United States Department of Agriculture] regulations.”

The largest previous recall involved 35 million pounds of ready-to-eat meats in 1999. Concern over the treatment of cattle has been heightened by bestselling books such as Fast Food Nation, written by Eric Schlosser.

Steve Mendell, the president of Westland Meat, said that he was shocked by the treatment of cattle at his facility.

He added: “We have taken swift action regarding the two employees identified on the video and have already implemented aggressive measures to ensure all employees follow our humane handling policies and procedures.”

James Reagan, the chairman of the Beef Industry Food Safety Council, supported the recall, describing it as “a precautionary measure”. He reassured consumers that the beef supply was safe.

William Marler, a food safety lawyer from Seattle, called for congressional hearings on the safety of the US beef supply. “The link between cattle that are too sick or injured to stand or walk and BSE has been clearly established,” he said. “We were promised that the procurement specifications eliminated ‘downer cattle' from the national school lunch programme and that the USDA fully banned ‘downer cattle' from the human food chain in 2003. We now know that USDA ban was a lie.”

Unfit for human consumption

- Japanese supermarkets removed 59 Chinese meat products from their shelves this month after at least 175 people, who had eaten imported dumplings tainted with insecticide, fell ill

- Last year a Bavarian wholesale meat producer confessed to passing off 180 tonnes of rotten meat as quality produce and selling it to retailers in Germany

- A Swedish television programme broadcast footage last year of workers at ICA, a supermarket chain, repackaging old meat and putting it back on the shelves

- In 2006 the manager of a meat wholesale company in Munich committed suicide after the discovery of 110 tonnes of rotten meat, some four years out of date. Rotten beef, pork and poultry from the company is believed to have been sold across the EU

- The British BSE outbreak, which peaked in the 1990s, led to the slaughter of 4.4 million cattle and an estimated economic loss of £3.7 billion. 162 people died after contracting vCDJ

Source: Times archives

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