October 8, 2007

New legislation for US beef brewing over product recall

US Senator Sherrod Brown has announced a new legislation that would give the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) a mandatory recall authority which will speed up the removal of unsafe meats from US shelves. This following the biggest beef recall in US history, including 21.7 million pounds (9,843 tonnes) of frozen ground beef produced by the Topps Meat Company and a previous 331,852 pounds (15.04 tonnes) that has allegedly been contaminated with E.coli 0157:H7. 

While the USDA said that there were no recall delays, it took nearly six weeks before the first recall was issued. Part of the legislation would require US customs to develop a program where distributors would cover the costs associated with both product recalls and all personal and property damages.

There are 25 cases of E.coli under investigation across eight states in the US. The USDA has suspended the raw processed meat operations of Topps after finding that they had not followed proper meat handling procedures

With this case receiving extensive coverage in nationwide media, it is expected to have a short-term negative effect on the ground beef market.