Hallmark/Westland Meat Recall Hearing
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S. HRG. 110–693 HALLMARK/WESTLAND MEAT RECALL HEARING BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SPECIAL HEARING FEBRUARY 28, 2008—WASHINGTON, DC Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 44–333 PDF WASHINGTON : 2009 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont TED STEVENS, Alaska TOM HARKIN, Iowa ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico HERB KOHL, Wisconsin CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri PATTY MURRAY, Washington MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota LARRY CRAIG, Idaho MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas JACK REED, Rhode Island SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado BEN NELSON, Nebraska LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee CHARLES KIEFFER, Staff Director BRUCE EVANS, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION AND RELATED AGENCIES HERB KOHL, Wisconsin, Chairman TOM HARKIN, Iowa ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky BEN NELSON, Nebraska LARRY CRAIG, Idaho JACK REED, Rhode Island SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia (ex officio) Professional Staff GALEN FOUNTAIN JESSICA ARDEN FREDERICK DIANNE PREECE DENNIS KAPLAN FITZHUGH ELDER IV (Minority) STACY MCBRIDE (Minority) BRAD FULLER (Minority) Administrative Support RENAN SNOWDEN (II) CONTENTS Page Opening Statement of Senator Herb Kohl ............................................................. 1 Statement of Senator Robert F. Bennett ............................................................... 3 Statement of Senator Ben Nelson .......................................................................... 4 Prepared Statement of Senator Ben Nelson .......................................................... 5 Statement of Senator Byron L. Dorgan ................................................................. 6 Prepared Statement of Senator Richard J. Durbin .............................................. 7 Prepared Statement of Senator Tim Johnson ....................................................... 9 Statement of Hon. Ed Schafer, Secretary of Agriculture, Department of Agri- culture ................................................................................................................... 10 Al Almanza, Administrator, Food Safety and Inspection Service ....................... 10 Kate Houston, Deputy Under Secretary, Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Serv- ices ......................................................................................................................... 10 Dr. Ken Clayton, Associate Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service ..... 10 Prepared Statement of Edward T. Schafer ............................................................ 12 Prepared Statement of Senator Tom Harkin ........................................................ 25 Statement of Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO, The Humane Society of the United States ................................................................................................. 34 Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 37 Addenda .................................................................................................................... 41 Statement of J. Patrick Boyle, President, American Meat Institute ................... 48 Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 50 Prepared Statement of Temple Grandin, Ph.D., Professor, Animal Science, Colorado State University ................................................................................... 53 Numerical Objective Scoring ................................................................................... 54 Chino Meat Plant Drew Inland Humane Society Scrutiny Years Before Video ...................................................................................................................... 55 Inspectors Say Meat Safety is Threatened ............................................................ 57 Prepared Statement of the Weston A. Price Foundation ..................................... 58 Questions Submitted by Senator Herb Kohl ......................................................... 67 Questions Submitted by Senator Tom Harkin ...................................................... 70 Downer rule .............................................................................................................. 70 Food-borne Pathogens and Downer Cattle ............................................................ 72 Inspectors ................................................................................................................. 72 Questions Submitted by Senator Byron L. Dorgan .............................................. 73 Questions Submitted by Senator Dianne Feinstein .............................................. 74 Questions Submitted by Senator Ben Nelson ....................................................... 75 Questions Submitted by Senator Robert F. Bennett ............................................ 78 (III) HALLMARK/WESTLAND MEAT RECALL THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2008 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES, COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 2:06 p.m., in room SD–192, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Herb Kohl (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Kohl, Harkin, Dorgan, Nelson, Bennett, and Craig. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR HERB KOHL Senator KOHL. At this time we’d like to call this very important hearing to order. Earlier this month, the Westland/Hallmark Company of Chino, California recalled 143 million pounds of beef. This is the largest recall of its kind in our history. It was triggered by gruesome video images that shocked us all. These images exposed wholly unaccept- able gaps in American meat inspection systems. These short- comings were not brought to light by any agency charged with pro- tecting food safety. They came to our attention through an inde- pendent third party. Americans, myself included, were appalled to see cattle too sick to stand, much less walk, being chained, dragged, fork lifted, kicked, jabbed, and then dumped into Amer- ica’s food supply. If that is not enough reason to pay attention, we have 30 million more, and that’s the number of children who participate in the na- tional school lunch program. This plant was a major supplier to that school lunch program. In 2003, USDA reported the first case of mad cow disease in this country. USDA’s immediate response was to ban downer cattle from the food supply. Last year, USDA did weaken that rule. And in the Hallmark/Westland case, there’s evidence that even the weaker rule was being flaunted. By law, all cattle are subject to inspection prior to slaughter. De- spite the presence of five inspectors at the Hallmark/Westland Plant, blatant violations had evidently occurred and for some time. This begs the question, how did this happen? And in the next breath, a logical question would ask, what violations are going un- noticed in other plants? Those are the core questions that we will explore today. Why was there a failure in FSIS inspection procedures? How do we know that there are not similar problems in other plants? What is the effect on the school lunch program and food safety in gen- (1) 2 eral? And what steps should be, and will be taken to correct these problems? No one wants another Hallmark/Westland situation anywhere in the country, cannot allow—we cannot allow a single downer cow to enter our food supply under any circumstances. We need to have tougher standards, around the clock surveillance, and stiffer pen- alties. Mr. Secretary, the American people don’t want bureaucratic dou- ble-speak about the mess in Chino. They are watching and listen- ing to this hearing, and they want to know what we’re going to do to clean it up. They want to know what we can commit to today. They want a solid plan for the future. Something has to change, and if change doesn’t come quickly, then we believe that some peo- ple should be thinking about new careers. We’re particularly troubled by the implications that this has for the school lunch program. There is no room for error, especially when children are involved. What happens in the feedlot or the slaughter house ends up in school lunch rooms. As a starting point, Mr. Secretary, we want you to commit to something very specific, we want you to do an audit of every single plant, to make sure that they have language appropriate materials for their workers. We are only as good as the workers that we