The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) officially amended its regulations on August 18, 2008, to require publication of the names and locations of all retailers receiving meat or poultry subject to Class I product recalls — those deemed to be high risk to human health.
The change has delivered critical new information to consumers during outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter and other foodborne diseases that annually kill about 5,000 people in the U.S., including those who die from HUS E coli.
But FSIS excluded restaurants from the new requirement and national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen has learned that the decision was made despite criticism from state and local health officials and other food safety advocates.
According to the Federal Register, FSIS received several comments during the rule-making process that said the disclosure effort didn’t go far enough. Excluding restaurants, hotels, cafeterias and other outlets “will create an unnecessary hurdle for state or local public health agencies to overcome to obtain timely distribution information” during an outbreak, the document summarized.
“One commenter stated that providing (restaurant) information would provide consumers greater protection from the risks associated with tainted meat or poultry while another suggested that restaurants be included so that individuals are fully aware of the scope of recalls.”
But agency officials rejected the urgings, saying restaurant disclosure was beyond the scope of the new rule: Which was intended to help consumers determine if they have tainted meat in their homes.
In the wake of the National Steak and Poultry E. coli recall of 248,000 pounds of beef products sold to restaurants nationwide, the FSIS may want to reconsider. The December 24 recall was Class I, meaning that there was a reasonable probability that the use of the product would cause serious adverse health consequences or death.
Yet the FSIS’s recall announcement, issued with input from the company, included only a partial list of restaurants that received the product. Many days later, media scrutiny revealed that the FSIS announcement was incomplete and misleading. Two giant restaurant chains — Applebees and Olive Garden — also had received beef products involved in the recall.
If the point of government recalls is to protect consumers, it makes no sense to impede them from accurately identifying where tainted products are being sold. Just as it is with meat and poultry recalled from grocery stores, the information is readily available from the manufacturer and does not constitute confidential commercial information.
