: USDA m.o.u. forbids giving out "proprietary" info about whereBSE-tainted beef ended up!

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Wulf Losee <qx49 () comcast net>
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2004 16:19:13 
To:dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: USDA m.o.u. forbids giving out "proprietary" info about where
 BSE-tainted beef ended up!

Dave:
This was in Saturday's SF Chronicle. Evidently, I have to depend on the 
honesty of my grocer to tell me whether I may have bought BSE-tainted beef, 
because the USDA has a memorandum of understanding with the State of CA 
that the info won't be given out the public (!). Am I the only one who 
seems shocked by this?

Considering that over 150 people in Britain died from BSE, and that the 
USDA is insisting that there "is no health risk", we ought to insist that 
Ann Veneman and her senior staff should be forced to eat from this recalled 
beef.

--Wulf


 From Saturday's SF Chronicle...

State can't say who sold beef
Rules bar telling which stores, restaurants had tainted meat

Sabin Russell, Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writers          Saturday, January 
3, 2004

Meat from a Washington state slaughterhouse that contained cuts from a lone 
cow that tested positive for mad cow disease was sold in as many as nine 
California counties, but current rules forbid the state or counties from 
telling consumers exactly where recalled meat was sold.

California Department of Health Services officials have begun notifying 
counties that meat from a recalled lot of 10,410 pounds of Washington state 
beef had been tracked to retailers, but also warned counties not to 
identify which stores or restaurants purchased it.

Alameda and Santa Clara counties have been informed by the state that 11 
local restaurants and a market purchased soup bones from the suspect lot, 
but they have also declined to identify which establishments purchased them.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture insists the recall is precautionary and 
the meat poses no health risk.

According to USDA spokesman Matthew Baun, it's up to consumers to check 
with their grocers, butchers or restaurants to find out if any of the 
recalled meat may have landed on their tables.

"We are prohibited from releasing information that companies would consider 
proprietary,'' he explained. "If you are concerned whether you may have 
purchased the product, you can call your retail store. They would know. .. 
. The only way to know for sure is to contact stores."

All this secrecy is grounded in USDA rules surrounding the voluntary nature 
of tainted meat recalls, and in an 18-month-old memorandum of understanding 
that arose in an earlier tainted-meat episode. The memorandum was agreed to 
between the federal agency, California and several other states, and was 
meant to give states a bigger role in verifying that the recall was working.

<snip>

complete story at

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/03/MNGJF4315K1.DTL


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