Months after the biggest meat recall in U.S. history, the Agriculture Department said on Friday it will begin making public the names of retail stores that receive tainted products, but critics said the change does not go far enough to protect public health.
"We need this rule to reinstall confidence in the American public that we are in control here," Richard Raymond, the agriculture undersecretary who oversees USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, told reporters.
The new plan, which will go into effect before the end of August, would list retail stores only when there is a good chance a person will become ill or die by consuming the meat or poultry product, so-called Class I recalls. Other recall classes where there is a remote or no probability of illness would not be covered.
The push for a more open recall system gained momentum after USDA announced on February 17 that Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co was recalling 143 million lbs of meat, mostly beef. It was the largest meat recall in U.S. history.
Under Friday's announcement, the list of retailers that received meat in the Hallmark recall, which was categorized as one where there was a minimal risk to humans, would not have been made public.
Lawmakers and consumer groups welcomed the new USDA rule, but said it stopped short of fully protecting the public because it failed to cover all meat and poultry recalls.
"If a problem is serious enough to spark a recall, it is serious enough to give consumers all the information they need to avoid potentially dangerous products," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director at Food & Water Watch.
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer defended USDA's decision to limit the release of retailers only to where the threat was the greatest to public health.
"We don't want to unnecessarily scare the public," said Schafer. "We want to assure consumers that if they see a Class I recall, and they see their retail store there, they know this is a problem."
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Agency has been working on the rule since March 2006 as another way to give consumers important public health information more quickly. Until now, the department had maintained it did not have the authority to release retail lists.
The department said on Friday the process used to recall products now would remain in place.
Under existing guidelines, USDA contacts food distributors to ensure proper notification is taking place and that products are being removed from store shelves and disposed of properly. It also publicly releases the name of the company involved, the reason for the recall and whether any illnesses have been reported.
Bob Brackett, a senior vice president at the Grocery Manufacturers Association, said he supported keeping the existing rules rather than making changes that may not help the consumer.
"This information, which is publicly announced by USDA when a recall is initiated, is far more timely, reliable and current than a generic list of retailers that might change over time and could very well be inaccurate to begin with," said Brackett.
An FSIS spokeswoman estimated it would take 3 to 10 days to collect the names of the retail stores involved and the list would be periodically updated as information is gathered.
