Is Walmart and Food Lion Included in the Beef Recall
Agribusiness
Beef Products, Inc., a South Dakota producer of lean finely textured beef filed a defamation lawsuit
U.S. Department of Agriculture / U.S. Department of Agriculture
Cattle graze on grass at the Tuckahoe Plantation, in Goochland County, VA surface area on Thursday, May 5, 2011.
against ABC News in September seeking $1.2 billion in actual damages. The lawsuit is based on what BPI legal counsel chosen a "long-term, sustained, vicious attack" by ABC against BPI's product.
The March 2012 ABC News coverage of the product focused on the process in which ammonium hydroxide gas is introduced to the meat. The news circulate referred to lean finely textured beef equally "pinkish slime" and questioned the safe of the product. The ABC News written report also featured information well-nigh major grocery retailers that sold ground beef with lean finely textured beef .
Prior to this coverage BPI produced and distributed approximately 5 1000000 pounds of product weekly. This accounted for roughly 75 percent of the marketplace of lean finely textured beefiness. In the 28 days post-obit the broadcast product decreased to 1.6 million pounds per calendar week. Sales went from $viii.nine million to $3 meg weekly, according to the lawsuit file in South Dakota Circuit Courtroom.
Through "defamation by implication" ABC News led consumers to believe lean finely textured beef is not prophylactic, not nutritious, non meat or beef, and BPI took part in improper behavior in working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Dan Webb, pb attorney for BPI, during a Sept. 13 press conference. He also said that BPI is seeking damages due to "wrongful interference with business organization relationships" by ABC News.
In the March report ABC News created a "blacklist" a major grocery store bondage that carried BPI'south production. Following the written report, as grocery stores would announce discontinuing the sale of BPI'southward production, the store would be taken off the "blacklist" and moved to the "skillful" list. Stores that discontinued the sale of footing beef with lean finely textured beefiness included: Safeway, Supervalu, Nutrient Lion, Kroger, Wal-Mart, ALDI, BI-LO, Winn-Dixie, Behemothic Hawkeye, Relieve Mart and Stop & Shop, according to the lawsuit.
Fast food restaurants including Taco Bell and burger giants McDonald's and Burger King announced ending the use of ground beef containing lean finely textured beef prior to the ABC News reports. However, coverage of lean finely textured beefiness by television set chef Jamie Oliver was credited for putting pressure on these chains to discontinue selling the product.
In a statement during the Sept. xiii press briefing, Craig Letch, managing director of food safety and quality assurance for BPI, said that the news coverage was not the result of a foodborne illness or safe issue. He added that BPI goes to considerable effort to ensure the quality of its product.
In the terminal 10 years BPI has had 1 Class I recall; that was in Feb 2002. Approximately 131,000 pounds of beefiness patties were recalled, according to the U.S.D.A. Food Prophylactic Inspection Service documents.
"A logistical problem led to 13 boxes of lean trim that had tested positive for pathogens to be shipped to a customer instead of to a rendering constitute," said Letch in a statement to Gateway Journalism Review. "As shortly as BPI officials discovered the boxes were gone, they called the customers, which commenced a recall. There were no illnesses associated with the production."
While BPI is a major producer of lean finely textured beef it is not the just producer. Cargill Meat Solutions, based in Kansas, and AFA Foods, Inc. based in Pennsylvania also produced a substantial corporeality of the production prior to the March ABC News coverage.
In April, AFA announced filing Chapter eleven bankruptcy. The company had been working to restructure debt prior to the bound news fury, but could not get paperwork in guild before being hit with a slump in demand, according to an Fifty.A. Times article. AFA facilities across the land were close downwards.
One such plant in Texas was bought by competitor Cargill at a reduced charge per unit. Cargill plans to go on using the facility for ground beef production.
Unlike BPI that uses ammonium hydroxide to increase the pH level of footing beef to prevent pathogens, Cargill uses a procedure involving citric acrid. Perchance this is the reason the majority of media attention has focused on BPI and not Cargill.
Yet, in the past five years meat products produced past Cargill have been subject to 5 Class I recalls. 2 recalls involved ground turkey and one involved meat produced at an Australian Cargill facility. The other recalls involved Cargill'due south ground beef products made at U.S. facilities:
- October 2007: Wisconsin Firm Recalls Ground Beefiness Products Due to Possible East. coli O157:H7 Contamination
- July 2012: Pennsylvania Firm Recalls Ground Beef Products Due To Possible Salmonella Contagion
The contaminated meat involved in the July 2012 recall did upshot in several people condign sick.
Cargill Meat Solutions distributes beefiness, pork and poultry products under fifteen brand names including Angus Pride, Sterling Silver, Excel and Honeysuckle White.
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Source: https://investigatemidwest.org/2012/11/13/beef-products-producer-files-defamation-suit/
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