The USDA will provide you some Class I information Posted by Daniela at 07/23/08 05:25 PM

Starting next month, the USDA will provide you with the names of retailers involved in Class I recalled meat, giving us some clue about where potentially hazardous meat is lurking. This “final rule” does not extend to Class II recalls, which would have included the beef recalled from the Hallmark/Westland facility shipped to school districts across the country.

The USDA considered including Class II recalls in its final ruling but backed down. Class I recalls contain “a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death,” whereas Class II recalls are “only remotely likely” to affect our health, stated the final rule.

To be clear, the names of restaurants and other food service institutions - like nursing homes and schools - won’t be made public under this rule (p. 40946). Table 3 lists the types of retailers they will notify you about, including supermarkets, supercenters, and other "super retailers." Super?

Said Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer:

The identity of retail stores with recalled meat and poultry from their suppliers has always been a missing piece of information for the public during a recall. People want to know if they need to be on the lookout for recalled meat and poultry from their local store and by providing lists of retail outlets during recalls, USDA’s Food Safety Inspective Service will improve public health protection by better informing consumers.

The ruling left some lawmakers, like Rep. Rosa DeLauro, dissatisfied. “I am very disappointed that this new rule would apply only to Class I recalls. The next step should be to apply this rule to all recalls,” she said. Elanor at The Ethicurean offered another criticism:

Score one for access to information…

Of course, the new policy does nothing to address the root problems that plague our country’s meat supply, which is based around a production system that encourages the spread of pollution and disease (a system that has been heavily subsidized by the same federal government now struggling to manage all the meat recalls.

Up until now, the USDA would only tell us which states contaminated meat went to, but information about retailers was kept confidential. Access to retailer information will help us avoid foodborne sickness or death, logic we’ve supported for years. At least Class I recalled beef won’t all be secret.

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