FSnet Aug

FSnet Aug. 15/08

FLORIDA: Possible food poisoning outbreak

TEXAS: Tracing tainted produce isn't easy

PMA supports establishing global food safety standards in comments on FDA Food Protection Plan

FRENCH restaurants violating food safety rules

EUROSURVEILLANCE: A multi-country outbreak of Salmonella Agona, February - August 2008

MARLER BLOG: Nebraska Beef recalls more E. coli contaminated beef product

US: CSPI praises Senators for bipartisan food safety bill

SWITZERLAND: Chemical Engineers discover silver-lined solution to E. coli

MISSOURI: St. Charles County restaurant inspections

The science of E. coli in beef, that is "political science"

ONTARIO: Liberals seek emergency meeting on Conservative plan to abandon food safety inspections

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FLORIDA: Possible food poisoning outbreak
14.aug.08
WCTV
Lauren Searcy
http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/26939944.html
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/08/articles/food-safety-communication/possible-food-poisoning-outbreak-at-florida-state-sorority/index.html
Sorority houses on Florida State's campus are in a frenzy over a possible food poisoning epidemic.
Rumors are circulating that more than 70 girls in the Phi Mu house have become very ill and some maybe even hospitalized.
A representative from the sorority says she cannot confirm or deny the allegations until a formal response is issued from the Sorority's headquarters.
Some members of the Greek community say it is possible that this outbreak is affecting more than one house and the rumors have many other sororities taking precautions to protect their members.
Sara Noel Childers an FSU Sorority Member says, "We've been hearing all day that there's about 80 girls sick and there's rumors its been from the flu, or food poisoning. So that's what we've been hearing all day"
Kara Beth Yancey, also an FSU sorority member says her house is going to take more precautions to prevent a similar situation. "We're not going to stop ordering in but we are going to be a little more cautious on what kind of food we're ordering in."
No reports have been confirmed at this time, but we will continue to follow up on this story and bring you more information as soon as it becomes available.

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TEXAS: Tracing tainted produce isn't easy
14.aug.08
USA Today
Julie Schmit
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2008-08-13-jalapeno-market-source-salmonella-saintpaul_N.htm
McALLEN, Texas -- When government investigators found a hot trail to a potential cause of the salmonella outbreak that had confounded them for weeks, it led them to the "Pink Palace."
Nicknamed for its pink paint job, the palace is the McAllen Produce Terminal Market, a 42-acre wholesale market 5 miles north of a major border crossing point for Mexican fresh produce entering the USA.
From concrete loading docks, 100 small distributors and importers peddle tons of fresh produce a day — including Mexican-grown peppers, limes, mangoes and watermelon — mostly to supermarket and restaurant buyers. Need a new TV or lawnmower? They're here, too.
It was jalapeno peppers that drew Food and Drug Administration investigators. Last month, they found Mexican-grown jalapenos at a small distributor here that were contaminated with the same strain of salmonella saintpaul that's sickened 1,405 people nationwide and in Canada.
Whether those peppers, or others from a different farm in Mexico, caused the outbreak is uncertain. The investigation continues. Mexico says its tests show none of the strain on suspect farms.
U.S. lawmakers have said the investigation, now in its third month, has taken too long. They've also called for stronger laws ensuring that food sellers know where their products come from so that future outbreaks can be solved faster.
But the workings of the McAllen market reveal the sometimes long, convoluted and freewheeling way that fresh produce moves from farm to fork. They also underscore how difficult traceback can be, especially when small players are involved. That's been the case in the salmonella investigation, which focused on tomatoes before turning to peppers.
"The traceback has worked. It's just been slow," says David Acheson, the FDA's food-safety chief, of the investigation.
The McAllen market is capitalism in motion. In the morning, semis, pickups and vans pour through the gates of the complex carrying fresh produce, mostly from Mexico. It's delivered to distributors who rent stalls in the market's giant warehouses.
In the afternoon, much of the produce goes out. Buyers include U.S. retailers with stores from Georgia to Illinois, local distributors who deliver to restaurants via pickups, and flea-market vendors. Buyers can walk the docks, stall to stall, eyeing the goods. Most often, they drive to the dock of a preferred supplier. Prices are spoken, not written. Crumpled cash is as common as credit. Orders for one case, or a truckload, are filled all the same.
Most of the USA's fresh produce once moved through such markets in cities from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles, says Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association, which represents 3,000 grower/shippers, retailers and others. Today, the markets handle about 20%, as big retailers, restaurants and food producers have shifted to buying directly from growers and approved suppliers.
The change has improved food traceability. Big companies, including Costco Wholesale, Fresh Express and Ace Tomato, say computerized systems enable them to trace fresh produce from stores to growers within hours or minutes. Key to that capability? Numbers or other identifiers that go on cases or pallets of produce and stay with the produce from the field or packing shed to the processing plant or store.
But at the McAllen market, crates and pallets of produce sometimes sit on the loading dock without such identifying information, even though sellers can say where they got them. Still, traceability in such instances is lost or at risk, says Ace Tomato President Parker Booth.
Produce in crates or pallets may be mingled with produce from multiple growers. Once unmarked produce gets to a store warehouse, it may be more easily mixed with other produce, he adds.
Booth's company won't buy from terminal markets, even though he says the produce is probably safe. "We don't know where that product came from," he says. "We want to buy direct from the grower."
Frontera Produce, one of Texas' largest fresh produce distributors, is headquartered 10 miles north of the McAllen market. In the past, it bought from market distributors if its regular suppliers ran short and Frontera needed more fruits or vegetables to fill orders for customers such as Wal-Mart, Kroger and Safeway. Spot buying like that is common in the industry, says Frontera CEO Will Steele.
A year ago, Frontera eliminated purchases from distributors who couldn't track produce to the field. About six of several dozen failed to meet the new rules. Some were from the McAllen market, says Steele.
"Eighty percent of the industry has good traceback, 20% doesn't, and they put all of us at risk," he says.
The contaminated jalapeno peppers that the FDA said it found at the McAllen market were handled by distributor Agricola Zaragoza. On July 21, it recalled the peppers, which had been shipped to customers in Texas and Georgia in plastic crates and bags with no brand name or label, according to a company statement. The company refused further comment.
Federal law, adopted as part of The Bioterrorism Act after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, requires food producers, distributors and others to record to whom they sent product and from whom they received it.
In documents published in 2004, the FDA said 20% of food traceback investigations ended prematurely because of inadequate record-keeping by the industry.
The one-up, one-back requirement fell short of what the FDA had wanted, says William Hubbard, a former FDA official who oversaw policy at that time. He says the FDA wanted distributors or wholesalers to keep records tracking a food back to its source. One-up, one-back was settled upon after food companies argued that a full accounting would be too onerous, given that multiple distributors may handle food as it moves through the supply chain, Hubbard says.
Nearly everybody can fulfill one-up, one-back, Steele says. But the FDA's Acheson says broad use of paper records by smaller companies involved in the salmonella traceback delayed FDA investigators.
The FDA also lost hours trying to reconcile records company-to-company along the supply chain, asserts Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. At a congressional hearing last month, Stupak displayed a box from a California supermarket that had no identifying information except "tomatoes" and "USA."
The delays cost tomato producers dearly. Their sales tanked throughout June amid FDA suspicions that tomatoes were to blame for the outbreak before the agency's focus shifted in July to peppers. The FDA is currently warning consumers to avoid raw jalapeno and serrano peppers grown in Mexico and foods that contain them.
"A faster system … would allow (us) to exclude products faster … and give you a source faster," Acheson told lawmakers.
Many foods can be hard to track. A package of hamburger that's ground in a store, for example, may include beef from multiple suppliers. Stores, regulated by local and state laws, may not be required to keep grinding records, says Ben Miller, traceback coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
Fresh produce is particularly tough. It moves fast so it doesn't perish. It may be repacked, sold in bulk and handled by a half-dozen companies with different tracking capabilities.
On a recent morning at the McAllen market, Javier Topete worked off four computer screens in an air-conditioned room off the loading dock of his company, Soles Produce.
Within minutes, Topete determined the Mexican orchard in which a particular case of mangoes were grown. The mangoes were headed to retailers including Wal-Mart and Sam's Club.
Nearby, Romeo and Gracie Gutierrez,owners of GTZ Produce,worked their stall together. Romeo does the buying; Gracie waits for buyers on the dock, swatting flies in the midday heat.
GTZ buys produce from a broker, who buys from growers in the USA and Mexico, says Romeo. One of GTZ's frequent customers is a distributor that sells to a regional grocery chain, he adds.
Following a one-up, one-back trail can be fast. It took Minnesota food-safety officials three days to track a contaminated jalapeno garnish from a restaurant there through three U.S. distributors to two growers and a distributor in Mexico, says Miller. One of the three unidentified U.S. distributors was at the McAllen market, but it was not Agricola Zaragoza. The FDA says it was first led to the McAllen market by other state investigators' tracebacks.
Getting that kind of speed in every traceback is needed, proponents of new standards say. Since late last year, companies such as Frontera have joined trade associations and retailers, including Food Lion, to set new traceability standards.
The Produce Traceability Initiative calls for numbers on cases of produce that identify producers, lot numbers and harvest dates, and scanners that record cases' movements through shipping. Ace Tomato's system costs about 1 cent a box, whether the box sells for $6 or $13, Booth says. Even for small firms, the cost would be "minimal" over time, he adds.
Backers of the initiative expect to set deadlines for adoption of electronic records within weeks. Compliance will be voluntary. The FDA's Acheson says mandatory rules may be needed.
Either way, Frontera's Steele says change is needed. "There will always be outbreaks," he says. "What matters is … whether we can go to a store and say, " 'We've detected a problem, and it's isolated to this particular pallet or box and let's keep doing business.' "

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PMA supports establishing global food safety standards in comments on FDA Food Protection Plan
14.aug.08
Fresh Plaza
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=26654
Produce Marketing Association (PMA) submitted comments July 31 on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Food Protection Plan focusing recommendations on its three core elements: prevention, intervention and response.
Writing for PMA, Vice President of Government Relations and Public Affairs Kathy Means called for FDA to establish commodity-specific, risk-based food safety regulations for certain fresh produce items and supported the agency's proposal that it act as a third-party auditor accreditor. The agency's Food Protection Plan's principles include focusing on risk throughout the product's life cycle, targeting resources to maximize risk reduction, attending to both unintentional and intentional contamination, and using science based technology. The agency requested public comment on its plans in a Federal Register notice published April 2; comments were due by July 31.
"We stand by our previous recommendations for FDA to establish, or partner with the produce industry to create, a globally recognized food safety standard," said Means. "We want to assure that the agency incorporates the industry's earlier efforts to develop commodity-specific food safety programs based on best current science, and grounded on the principles of risk assessment and risk management.
"Every company throughout the fresh produce supply chain is responsible for food safety aligning with the plan's prevention element. Specifically, we have called on FDA to develop mandatory Good Agricultural Practices for industry use that apply to U.S. and imported foods, are commodity-specific and risk- and science-based, and allow for regional variations," said Means.
PMA also agreed that the agency's intervention focus should be on prioritized risk-based surveillance to conserve financial and human resources. To do so, the association recommended using the best technologies, standardized protocols and a third-party accreditation inspector system – regarding which PMA submitted comments May 16.
"The last of the plan's elements, response, is key. In the event of a foodborne illness outbreak, such as the one we witnessed with Salmonella saintpaul this summer, the speed of an investigation relies on the competence, capacity and standardization of information," said Means. "Delays in reporting and misinformation do not only hinder the investigation, but also the confidence of consumers in the healthy, delicious produce they eat."
FDA requested comments from stakeholders on its comprehensive Food Protection Plan released November 2007. The plan intends to present a robust strategy to protect the nation's food supply from both unintentional contamination and deliberate attack. The agency asked for input on best practices, benefits and challenges of implementation, and gaps within each core element of the plan.

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FRENCH restaurants violating food safety rules
14.aug.08
Telegraph.co.uk
Henry Samuel
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/2557703/French-restaurants-violating-food-safety-rules.html
The ugly truth about French food hygiene was revealed today by its agriculture minister, Michel Barnier.
In a swoop dubbed "operation holiday food", an army of inspectors seized and disposed of 30 tons of produce after visiting almost 10,000 venues - more than twice the amount confiscated last year. In all, 27 per cent of the sites inspected failed to meet food quality and hygiene norms. Breaches included selling mouldy ingredients, food handed out past its sell-by date or thawed and refrozen produce.
Some 37 establishments were ordered to close, and over 400 warnings and fines handed out. In one holiday centre selling food, 52 kilos of frozen produce was binned.
"The image of France is at stake", said Mr Barnier, who released the figures while visiting a motorway grill house. He wants to change his ministry's name to include the word "food".
Mr Barnier promised a clamp-down on the main culprits - chip, kebab and pizza vendors, but also road-side restaurants. The most common problem was with refrigeration, he said, which affects products such as ice-cream, mayonnaise in sandwiches and ready-made salads.
He made no mention of how many higher-end restaurants were on the inspection black list.
French inspectors have already turned the screw on companies preparing food products including raw fish, like tartare, due to the risk of contracting a parasite called anisakis, which can affect the digestive system and spark allergies.
Mr Barnier said France alone could not be blamed, singling out sub-standard food imported from outside the European Union, such as "adulterated oil from Ukraine or off beef from Brazil". Echoing the words of President Nicolas Sarkozy, he said France, which currently holds the six-month EU presidency, would push for tougher European controls on food imports.
"Imported food should respect the same norms as those imposed on European producers. These moves will guarantee French consumers and foreign tourists impeccable food safety", he said.
He also used the operation to promote French fruit and vegetables, whose sale price has dived due to lack of demand. Producers will exceptionally be allowed to sell off their stocks directly in supermarket car parks.

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EUROSURVEILLANCE: A multi-country outbreak of Salmonella Agona, February - August 2008
14.aug.08
Eurosurveillance, Volume 13, Issue 33, 14 August 2008
D O'Flanagan1, M Cormican2, P McKeown1, N Nicolay1,3, J Cowden4, B Mason5, D Morgan6, C Lane6, N Irvine7, L Browning4
1. Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Health Service Executive, Dublin, Ireland
2. National Salmonella Reference Laboratory, Dublin, Ireland
3. European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training, Stockholm, Sweden
4. Health Protection Scotland, Glasgow, Scotland
5. National Public Health Service for Wales, Cardiff, Wales
6. Health Protection Agency Centre for Infections, London, England
7. Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre Northern Ireland, Belfast, Northern Ireland
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=18956
An outbreak of gastroenteritis affecting residents in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Finland is currently being investigated. As of Wednesday 13 August, a total of 119 cases have been identified. An investigation that includes interviews of persons with Salmonella Agona infections, comparison of pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) profiles of S. Agona isolates from cases and also food samples from an Irish food production company and retail outlet chain supplied by the company, suggests that food products from that company may be related to some of these cases. A number of food products including beef steak strips, chicken in various forms, bacon in various forms, and pork have been withdrawn (see: http://www.fsai.ie/ for details). The investigation is ongoing.
Background
On 15 July, the Irish National Salmonella Reference Laboratory reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre six isolates of S. Agona received over the previous three weeks. This was an unusual finding as there were a total of three isolates in 2007, five in 2006 and 10 in 2005. The temporal association of six isolates of an uncommon serotype suggested a possible link between cases. Early descriptive data showed that the patients affected were mainly young adult males between 20 and 45 years of age. No link between cases was immediately apparent and a food-borne source was considered most likely. An outbreak was declared on 16 July. Colleagues in United Kingdom Surveillance Centres were notified on 16 July. Colleagues in England, Scotland and Wales informed about an increase in reports of S. Agona during the end of June and early July. Alerts were posted through the Food- and Waterborne Diseases (former ENTER-net) network and the European Union (EU) Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) on 23 July. Subsequently, single cases were reported in Northern Ireland and Finland.

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MARLER BLOG: Nebraska Beef recalls more E. coli contaminated beef product
14.aug.08
Marler Blog
Food Poisoning Lawyer
http://www.marlerblog.com/2008/08/articles/legal-cases/nebraska-beef-recalls-more-e-coli-contaminated-beef-product/
I am sure glad FSIS made this clear:
Clarification: This recall affects only certain products produced at the Nebraska Beef Ltd. company, located in Omaha. It does not relate, implicate, or otherwise affect beef in the State of Nebraska. Please note this important distinction.
Here is the real problem:
Recall Release CLASS I RECALL
FSIS-RC-029-2008 HEALTH RISK: HIGH
Nebraska Beef, Ltd., an Omaha, Neb., establishment, is clarifying information from and expanding its recall announced on Aug. 8 of primal cuts, subprimal cuts and boxed beef to include such products bearing the company name "Nebraska Beef Ltd" that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.
The total amount of product subject to recall is approximately 1.36 million pounds. The expansion of approximately 160,000 pounds and the clarifying information include:
* Primal cuts, subprimal cuts and boxed beef produced on June 24, whose shipping containers and labels bear the establishment number "EST. 19336" inside the USDA mark of inspection and the company name "Nebraska Beef Ltd" The products may or may not bear a green sticker.
* Primal cuts, subprimal cuts and boxed beef produced on July 8, whose shipping containers and labels bear the establishment number "EST. 19336" inside the USDA mark of inspection, the company name "Nebraska Beef Ltd." as well as a 2-inch plain, circular green sticker on one side of the shipping box.
Poundage of products bearing the green sticker were included in the 1.2 million pounds originally recalled, but were not identified in the product description with the company name "Nebraska Beef Ltd." in the Aug. 8 announcement.
FSIS has concluded that the production practices employed by Nebraska Beef, Ltd., on June 24 were insufficient to effectively control E. coli O157:H7. The products subject to the expansion may have been produced under insanitary conditions. The expansion was not prompted by foodborne illness investigations.
These products were sent to establishments and retail stores nationwide for further processing and will likely not bear the establishment number "EST. 19336" on products available for direct consumer purchase.
The problem prompting the recall announced on Aug. 8 was discovered through a joint investigation with state departments of health and agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FSIS. As of Aug. 11, there were 26 culture-confirmed cases in 10 states and 1 culture-confirmed case in Canada identified as part of this outbreak. This count is based on continuing testing, analysis and investigation.

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US: CSPI praises Senators for bipartisan food safety bill
14.aug.08
Center for Science in the Public Interest
CSPI Food Safety Director Caroline Smith DeWaal
http://cspinet.org/new/200808141.html
The bipartisan FDA Food Safety Modernization Act would help refocus the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on preventing, rather than just reacting to, food-borne disease outbreaks. Senators Richard Durbin, Judd Gregg, Christopher Dodd, Richard Burr, Tom Harkin, and Lamar Alexander have developed constructive legislation in a bipartisan manner, proving that the safety of the food we serve our families is not a partisan political issue.
The bill would require domestic and foreign food companies to assess potential hazards, develop food safety plans, and take steps to prevent contaminated foods from being marketed. It also would require FDA to issue regulations for ensuring safer fresh produce. Those are positive reforms that CSPI identified in its "White Paper on Building a Modern Food Safety System for FDA Regulated Foods" as being essential to reforming the nation's food safety system.
The bill could be strengthened by modernizing FDA's outdated 1938 enforcement tools with stronger civil penalties, better traceability and oversight, and broader recall authority. The bill also needs to provide for new resources to implement these programs and hire more inspectors at the FDA. Hopefully, these issues will be addressed in legislation currently being drafted in the House of Representatives.
Passage of comprehensive legislation to modernize FDA's food safety authorities this year would be an important step to modernizing our nation's food safety system. It is only the first step however. In the next Administration, Congress should enact legislation that will bring our entire food regulatory system into the 21st century by creating a unified food agency with a single leader and a firm budgetary foundation. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act is an important step towards this goal.

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SWITZERLAND: Chemical Engineers discover silver-lined solution to E. coli
14.aug.08
AlphaGalileo Foundation
http://www.alphagalileo.org/index.cfm?_rss=1&fuseaction=readrelease&releaseid=531505
Chemical Engineers in Switzerland have created a plastic film that's up to 1000 times more effective at killing E. coli bacteria cells than conventional methods.
The team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich have discovered that coating the film with a mix of silver and calcium phosphate nano-particles proves deadly to bacteria.
Wendelin Stark, a chemical engineer and leader of the project explained that it had been previously impossible to apply silver in a targeted and measured way. However, by using a film and applying the silver to the calcium phosphate, he believes the problem has been overcome: "Within 24 hours of the plastic film being applied to a surface, less than 1 bacterium out of 1 million bacteria will survive."
Because bacteria rely on calcium for their metabolism, the 20-50 nanometer calcium phosphate particles are used by the micro-organisms as nutrition. When the bacteria consume the calcium phosphate, this releases thousands of small silver 1-2 nanometer particles. It's these tiny silver particles that kill the bacteria and prevent germs from growing and spreading.
The polymer film only emits silver if bacteria are growing in the vicinity. This can be assessed by the quantity of calcium phosphate that is taken up by the bacterium. "It saves money and is much more efficient," said Stark.
"It also reduces the environmental impact of the process and we have developed a method that is easy to apply and could bring great benefits to patients in hospitals, as well as the food industry."
Silver has been used as an antiseptic and disinfectant for thousands of years. Wealthy households would commonly use silver tableware in the belief it could fend off germs, whilst poorer people would put silver coins into their milk jug.
Silver was also used in medical treatments before being replaced by antibiotics but nanotechnology has allowed the metal something of a medical renaissance. The project is now being up scaled by a Swiss Company.
The work has been praised by Dr David Brown, Chief Executive of the Institution of Chemical Engineers: "This is an outstanding example of how chemical engineers are making a crucial contribution to society".
Details of the work have been published in the science journal, Small with a second paper due for publication in Nature Nanotechnology next month.

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The science of E. coli in beef, that is "political science"
14.aug.08
Marler Blog
Bill Marler
http://www.marlerblog.com/2008/08/articles/legal-cases/the-science-of-e-coli-in-beef-that-is-political-science/
A friend just sent me a link to Omaha Action 3 News – "Recall Ridden Beef Plant Stays Open: Why?"
Good question and I love the first line – "Another day, another recall from one specific South Omaha meat packing plant."
Here is the fun part:
An Action 3 News investigation has found ties between the South Omaha plant and Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. According to federal election records, two years ago, Senator Nelson's re-election campaign received contributions from two top officials of Nebraska Beef. In 2006 William Lamson, the lawyer for the company, gave Nelson 2 thousand dollars. Lamson is also Nelson's former law partner. The President of Nebraska Beef has also contributed to Nelson. In 2006 William Hughes wrote Nelson three checks. The first was for $2,000. The second: $2,100. The third: $10,300 thousand. A grand total of $14,400.
One other note, according to the Washington Post, in 1998 when Nelson was Governor, the State of Nebraska gave Nebraska Beef seven and a half million dollars in tax credits. Nelson was a member of the three man board that okayed those tax breaks.
As I always say, "money talks and E. coli walks." Or, is it 'eat E. coli and die?" Or simply just "eat E. coli!" Or, in Nebraska Beef's case, they are "in a lot of E. coli." They should really "get their E. coli togehter." Why, because, "they should give an E. coli."
I find it amazing how many people in and out of the beef industry have been helpful - sending me tips and documents - especially inspection reports on Nebraska Beef Ltd. I also got a few emails today that you can find below:
Email 1:
I lived near the plant for years and drove by the facility day and night. I am not sure exactly where the Nebraska Beef slaughtering plant is located, but I was told that they are next to Darling International on Dahlman Avenue which is a major street that area resident's use to cross over the interstate.
Darling International renders cattle parts for pet food. The stench coming out of that plant is horrendous. Most of the time they do not use the chemical buffers required to neutralize the stench that billows out of the chimneys, even though by law they are required to.
There is nothing worse than sleeping with your windows open on a cool spring evening and being woken up in the middle of the night, physically ill from the overpowering stench in the air. I called the city several times and complained and it would get better for a few weeks, then it was back again.
Many times I drove over rotted cattle hoofs which had apparently dropped from trucks onto Dahlman Avenue. Also I have seen sickly, filthy cattle, barely able to stand, brought in there on trucks that were nearly covered with runny manure. I have seen lots of cattle trucks, but never any as filthy as these were. Only between 1 to about 3 head at a time were brought in. I am wondering what these cattle were used for as I just found out that Darling International does no slaughtering. Is this cattle for Nebraska Beef?
This entire area and these businesses need to be thoroughly investigated.
Email 2:
I worked in the shipping department of Nebraska Beef Ltd. from November, 2000 to August, 2002. My job duties entailed calling drivers into dock doors so their trucks could be loaded, printing up pull sheets for the trailers and printing shipping bills of lading for the drivers once the loads were filled. We also filled storage trailers, these were then shipped to a cold storage facility nearby that we used to freeze and store beef, Quality Storage. Space was always at a premium so normally once a storage trailer was filled a manifest was printed and given to the shag drivers to take to Quality so the trailer could be off-loaded and brought back to our dock when empty to begin the process all over again. It was very odd for a storage trailer that was bound for Quality Storage to sit for longer than a couple of hours.
Around May or June of 2002, I became suspicious of storage trailers that instead of being off-loaded at Quality after being filled, were instead sitting at our drop lot for days before finally being sent to
be emptied. One day when my shift was finished, around 4:00 in the afternoon, I stopped at the drop lot to give some paperwork to one of the shag drivers. At this time I noticed two Vice Presidents of
Nebraska Beef, Shawn from All American Meats, and Irv? (Sorry, it has been a while and I am having trouble remembering names but the details are still very clear.) getting into the smaller reefer truck, we called the Bone Truck and leaving the drop lot. I followed them onto the Interstate and into North Omaha. During this time, I called into the shipping office to speak to one of the other clerks to inform her of what I was doing, and to ask her if she knew where we could be going. I described the exit and the street location of the building that I had seen them pull in to. She informed me that this was the "Bone Plant", the Bone Plant was where loads of bones were taken to be smoked, cut, and packaged for dog treats.
I believe that Nebraska Beef senior officials were taking "no roll" (non-inspected) cuts of beef and opening the packaging, stamping the meat as inspected, resealing the meat into Cryo-Vac bags,
then once a trailer load of beef was complete, they sent it to the storage facility to be sold to customers as prime and choice cuts of meat. This is why a trailer would sit for days at the drop lot, they would take what ever the small reefer truck could haul and repackage the meat at the bone plant after those employees had left for the day and then bring those meats back to another reefer trailer, once a load had been repacked then the trailer would be taken to Quality Storage to be off-loaded.
The next morning I went into work at my normal time of 5:00 a.m. I opened up the shipping office every day and was usually alone for the first half hour or so. I made copies of all the manifests for the storage trailers we had at the drop lot and recent loads that had been taken to the storage facility. I called the head USDA inspector of the plant unfortunately, I cannot remember his name. I gave him the documents that I had copied and informed him of what I had observed as well as my suspicions. He assured me that something would be done, I believe that some sort of investigation was launched but obviously nothing came of it. I was later told that management was aware that I
had made copies of the documents and had went to the USDA, William Hughes, President of Nebraska Beef wanted to fire me but, since it was known that I was moving to Florida in August of that year they decided to leave me alone.
I do not have any copies of the documents, I gave them all to the USDA inspector, I am not sure what good if any this information does for you. I believe that this is still going on at Nebraska Beef, especially with the cuts of meat involved in the latest recall. If I would have known at the time, I would have kept the documents and went to other sources as well to try and stop what I suspected was going on. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or if I can be of help you in any way. If you need documentation of my employment at Nebraska Beef, I can get copies of my W2's for that time period.

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ONTARIO: Liberals seek emergency meeting on Conservative plan to abandon food safety inspections
14.aug.08
Liberal press release
http://www.liberal.ca/story_14258_e.aspx
OTTAWA –- Liberals have demanded an emergency meeting of the agriculture committee to scrutinize a potentially dangerous, secret Conservative plan to gut food safety inspections, Liberal Agriculture Critic Wayne Easter, Public Health Critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett and Health Critic Robert Thibault said today.
"The government has refused to release the plan or subject it to committee scrutiny, and media reports indicate that it will be implemented this fall," said Mr. Easter. "We therefore have no choice but to force the committee to meet as quickly as possible. They have had eight months to level with Canadians since the plan was reportedly approved, yet they have refused. What are they hiding?"
The Liberals today submitted a letter to the committee clerk, which gives the chair five days to call the emergency meeting.
Experts familiar with the proposals have called them "dangerous," "illogical," and a game of "Russian-roulette with the Canadian public." A government memo reportedly states that the release of the plan is being delayed "owing to significant communication risks."
"Just recently, the Minister of Health's office said it released a report on the negative health impacts of climate change because it had been leaked and journalists were asking questions," said Mr. Thibault. "The Conservatives' failure to disclose their plan to abandon critical food safety inspections is clear proof of a double standard and hypocrisy."
Media reports indicate that the Conservative government plans to force the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to pull back from inspecting meat and meat products, animal feed, and commercial seeds. The organization is also reportedly considering reducing support for mad cow disease testing.
"With the Mike Harris gang in key positions within this Conservative government, Canadians have a right to know if this is a prelude to another Walkerton tragedy or Aylmer Meat Packers fiasco," said Dr. Bennett. "The Conservatives have spent too long hiding this plan from Canadians. Clearly the Conservatives are more worried about 'communication risks' than 'health risks.' It has been left to the Liberal Party to protect the health of Canadians."

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