Originally published August 30 2005
Government cracks down on meat plants for "mad cow rules" violations
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Agriculture Department told The Washington Post that inspectors found more than 1,000 violations of mad cow prevention rules in U.S. slaughterhouses, although no contaminated meat reached consumers, agency officials said.
Inspectors have found more than 1,000 violations of rules aimed at preventing mad cow disease from reaching humans, the Agriculture Department said Monday.
No contaminated meat reached consumers, the agency said.
The at-risk tissues are removed from cows older than 30 months because infection levels are believed to rise with age.
The Agriculture Department said Monday it had cited beef slaughterhouses or processing plants 1,036 times for failing to comply with rules on removing those tissues, which are commonly called specified risk materials or SRMs.
The number of violations amounts to less than 1 percent of all citations at those plants, said USDA spokeswoman Lisa Wallenda Picard.
"At no point in time did SRMs get to consumers," Picard said.
The department released the information in response to requests made by several groups under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
For example, there were mistakes in identifying animals' ages, which affected whether at-risk tissues were removed.
"Time and time again, they've said we have an SRM ban that is the ultimate public health measure they can take," said Patty Lovera, deputy director of Public Citizen's food program.
Removal of nerve tissues is important but doesn't guarantee the safety of the food supply, said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union.
"We've always had a dispute with the bright line USDA seems to draw between dangerous parts of the animal and safe parts of the animal," Halloran said.
A meatpacking industry official said the violations were minuscule and should not be worrisome.
In humans, consuming meat products tainted with BSE is linked to a fatal disorder called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
One human case has been reported in the United States, but the person was living in the United Kingdom during the outbreak there.
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