Meatpackers
Shirk Rules
USDA Lacks Teeth
"Did your daughter eat meat that was pink or red?"
The nurse's question puzzled Connie Kriefall. In an intensive care ward a few steps from where the mother stood, doctors were struggling to save her only daughter, a 3-year-old with sapphire eyes and a mysterious disease.
THE REPORT
Based on a seven-month investigation, this two-part series reveals major flaws in the U.S. government's meat safety net, which can lead to death, as it did last summer in the case of 3-year-old Brianna Kriefall of South Milwaukee. A joint effort with "Dateline NBC" examines the spread of deadly E. coli bacteria.
In six days, tiny Brianna Kriefall of South Milwaukee had gone from a healthy preschooler with a tummy ache to a deathly sick child with advanced organ failure. Her kidneys had quit. Her heart was faltering. And now a nurse was asking: Could this be E. coli?
Kriefall's mind raced back to dinner at a south side Sizzler restaurant the previous week. Brianna had chosen the children's buffet, she remembered. Watermelon, cantaloupe, cheese. Nothing likely to carry E. coli. "That just couldn't be possible," she said.
But the outbreak that killed Brianna and sickened dozens of others here in July was not only possible, it also was foreseeable. A series of systemic failures by government and industry all but guaranteed that potentially deadly microbes would make their way into a kitchen somewhere in America. It was simply a question of when.
State health investigators later concluded Brianna died from eating watermelon that Sizzler workers had inadvertently splattered with juices from tainted sirloin tips. The meat came from a Colorado slaughterhouse where beef repeatedly had been contaminated with feces, E. coli's favorite breeding ground. Federal inspectors had known of the problems at the plant and had documented them dozens of times. But ultimately they were unable to fix them.
Nearly a century after Upton Sinclair exposed the scandal of America's slaughterhouses in his novel "The Jungle," some of the nation's largest meatpacking plants still fail to meet federal inspection guidelines to produce meat free of disease-carrying filth, an investigation by The Washington Post and "Dateline NBC" has found.
U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors who patrol the nation's 6,000 meatpacking plants today are armed with more modern tools and tougher standards than ever. But the government's watchdog agency often has lacked the legal muscle and political will to address serious safety threats. It cannot impose civil fines or recall meat even when its inspectors see problems that could lead to outbreaks.
In the Milwaukee case, one of the nation's largest, most modern meatpacking plants - Excel Corp.'s Fort Morgan, Colo., facility - was cited 26 times over a 10-month period before Brianna's death for letting feces contaminate meat, documents show.
"It was like making Fords without brakes," said Michael Schwochert, a veterinarian and retired federal inspector who examined the Excel plant. "We used to sit around the office and say, 'They're going to have to kill someone before anything gets done.' "
Excel officials said they were unable to talk about the Milwaukee outbreak, citing litigation. In a statement, Excel said it uses cutting-edge technology to prevent contamination, but food must be properly cooked and handled to ensure safety.
A lawyer for the Sizzler franchise in Milwaukee said the restaurant owners still did not know how the outbreak occurred, but had reached settlements with numerous sickened customers.
Located on a dry plain 80 miles northeast of Denver, the Excel factory is an imposing agglomeration of smokestacks and aircraft hangar-sized buildings covering 2 million square feet.
Inside, much of the butchering is done the old-fashioned way, by workers using various sorts of knives. At the front of the line is the "knocker," who uses a pistol-like device to drive a metal bolt into the steer's head - the law requires that animals be rendered insensible to pain before slaughtering. Another worker slits the animal's throat to drain the blood. Others in turn remove limbs, hide and organs.
At line speeds of more than 300 cattle per hour, things frequently go wrong. Organs tear and spill their contents. Fecal matter is smeared and splattered.
The presence of fecal matter greatly increases the risk of pathogens, which is why USDA inspectors enforce a "zero-tolerance" policy for fecal contamination on meat carcasses. Meat smeared with fecal matter is supposed to be pulled off the line and cleaned by trimming. But there is no law that requires raw meat to be free of pathogens; the exception is for ground beef. Thus, raw meat must carry a label that specifies it must be properly cooked.
By the late summer and fall of 1999, Schwochert was accustomed to tussling with Excel's managers over problems ranging from filthy, urine-soaked employee washrooms to occasional findings of fecal matter on carcasses. But the skirmishes intensified dramatically on Sept. 13, 1999, after the USDA found E. coli 0157 in a package of Excel beef at an Indiana grocery store.
The discovery, part of a routine survey of grocery stores and meatpacking plants, triggered a series of reviews of the Excel plant's food-safety practices.
The measures began with two weeks of E. coli testing. Inspectors found E. coli - not once but twice, in the first three days of testing. The USDA ordered the contaminated meat seized, but it was too late. Some of the meat had been loaded onto a delivery truck.
"Not only were those samples positive, but that meat had left the plant," Schwochert said. Excel tracked down the truck and returned the meat to the plant.
USDA documents show the combination of E. coli positives and the improper shipment of the contaminated beef prompted the government to impose its harshest sanction: A district supervisor "withheld inspection" from the plant, forcing Excel to shut down for three days. On Sept. 28 of that year, the plant reopened under the threat of another suspension if new violations occurred.
They did, but no suspension followed. By Sept. 29, inspectors were finding so much fecal contamination on carcasses that Schwochert said he tried to close the plant again, even though he felt he lacked the authority to do so. At the last minute, the plant's top supervisor agreed to shutter the factory voluntarily for the rest of the day, Schwochert said.
Excel promised to retrain its workers and fine-tune its carcass-dressing system, although details of its plan are considered proprietary information. But more contaminated carcasses turned up two days later, and regularly after that, agency records show:
Oct. 1: "Fecal contamination observed . . . sample failed to meet zero-tolerance requirements."
Oct. 2: "Identifiable fecal deficiencies on two carcasses (out of 11)."
Oct. 4: "Fecal contamination splotched in an area 1 inch by 4 inches . . . carcasses retained."
Oct. 9: "Deficiencies were observed on six carcasses (out of 11)."
In company memos, Excel responded that the inspectors were focusing on "unrelated" and "isolated" incidents. But USDA district supervisors took a different view. One USDA letter called the company's explanations "incredible, frivolous and capricious." Another specifically suggested Excel was putting its customers at risk.
For five months, the USDA chose not to impose sanctions, despite 14 additional citations for fecal contamination and a host of other problems.
USDA inspectors asked their supervisors for guidance. How many violations before the plant is suspended again? Three? Five?
"The question was asked by myself or in my presence at least 10 times," Schwochert said, "and we never got a clear answer."
On May 23, the USDA threatened another suspension.
Excel was given three days to make changes - then a three-day extension, after Excel's initial proposals proved less than convincing.
Finally, on June 14, based on Excel's promise to improve its process, USDA withdrew its threat with an additional warning. "Your firm will be required to consistently demonstrate that your slaughter process is under control, meeting food-safety standards," the agency wrote.
On June 23, a sealed package of sirloin tips contaminated with E. coli was loaded into an Excel truck bound for Milwaukee.
The Sizzler restaurant on Layton Ave. was one of Brianna's favorite places, even if she could never quite remember its name.
Emotionally, the family was still in shock from the loss of a baby girl just seven weeks earlier. The girl the family calls Haley was stillborn. The loss reopened old wounds: Connie Kriefall had lost six fetuses in eight years before finally giving birth to Brianna in May 1997.
"She was my miracle baby," the mother said. "It was the best Mother's Day present any mom could ever get."
The couple's difficulty in having children made Connie Kriefall an exceptionally careful mother. She knew improperly cooked meat can carry E. coli, a microbe sometimes fatal to young children. So at Sizzler, the Kriefalls' buffet choices reflected caution: watermelon, cantaloupe, cheese, ham cubes, a meatball or two.
But on that night, the bacteria was hidden not in meat but in watermelon, an investigation concluded. A state health task force would determine that E. coli entered the restaurant in sealed packages of sirloin tips.
The memorial card for Brianna is a collage of things the little girl liked best: Barney and Barbies, dancing and Dr. Seuss, the little watering can that was Brianna's delight on summer days when the flowers were in bloom. The card's verse is written in a child's words.
"Mom and Dad, don't cry that I didn't stay," it begins. "I know you'll be lonesome for me for a while, but time heals all wounds and again you will smile."
For Connie Kriefall, just knowing that Brianna's ordeal might have been prevented fires emotions too intense for words. Like her son's, the mother's grief is tinged with an anger she suspects is beyond healing.
"They need to be aware that this has completely destroyed our lives," she says in a whisper. "Our daughter was a miracle child we waited eight years for. And now she's gone, and we'll never get her back."
PART 2
Pasco, Wash. - It takes 25 minutes to turn a live steer into steak at the modern slaughterhouse where Ramon Moreno works. For 20 years, his post was "second-legger," a job that entails cutting hocks off carcasses as they whirl past at a rate of 309 an hour.
| PENALTY?
Although a few plants have been forced to halt production for a few hours because of alleged animal cruelty, such sanctions are rare. |
The cattle were supposed to be dead before they got to Moreno. But too often they weren't.
"They blink. They make noises," he said softly. "The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around."
Still, Moreno would cut. On bad days, he says, dozens of animals reached his station clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller. "They die," Moreno said, "piece by piece."
Under a 23-year-old federal law, slaughtered cattle and hogs first must be "stunned" - rendered insensible to pain - with a blow to the head or an electric shock. But at overtaxed plants, the law is sometimes broken, with cruel consequences for animals as well as workers.
Enforcement records, interviews, videos and worker affidavits describe repeated violations of the Humane Slaughter Act at dozens of slaughterhouses, ranging from the smallest, custom butcheries to modern, automated establishments such as the sprawling IBP Inc. plant here where Moreno works.
"In plants all over the United States, this happens on a daily basis," said Lester Friedlander, a veterinarian and formerly chief government inspector at a Pennsylvania hamburger plant. "I've seen it happen. And I've talked to other veterinarians. They feel it's out of control."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees the treatment of animals in meat plants, but enforcement of the law varies dramatically. Although a few plants have been forced to halt production for a few hours because of alleged animal cruelty, such sanctions are rare.
For example, the government took no action against a Texas beef company that was cited 22 times in 1998 for violations that included chopping hooves off live cattle. In another case, agency supervisors failed to take action on multiple complaints of animal cruelty at a Florida beef plant and fired an animal health technician for reporting the problems to a humane society.
In the past three years, a new meat inspection system that shifted responsibility to industry has made it harder to catch and report cruelty problems, some federal inspectors say. Under the new system, implemented in 1998, the agency no longer tracks the number of humane-slaughter violations its inspectors find each year.
"Privatization of meat inspection has meant a quiet death to the already meager enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act," said Gail Eisnitz of the Humane Farming Association, a group that advocates better treatment of farm animals. "USDA isn't simply relinquishing its humane-slaughter oversight to the meat industry but is - without the knowledge and consent of Congress - abandoning this function altogether."
The USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service, which is responsible for meat inspection, says it has not relaxed its oversight. In January, the agency ordered a review of 100 slaughterhouses. An inspection service memo reminded its 7,600 inspectors they had an "obligation to ensure compliance" with humane-handling laws.
The review comes as pressure grows on both industry and regulators to improve conditions for the 155 million cattle, hogs, horses and sheep slaughtered each year. McDonald's and Burger King have been subject to boycotts by animal rights groups protesting mistreatment of livestock.
As a result, two years ago, McDonald's began requiring suppliers to abide by the American Meat Institute's Good Management Practices for Animal Handling and Stunning. The company also began conducting annual audits of meat plants. Last week, Burger King announced it would require suppliers to follow the meat institute's standards.
Industry groups acknowledge that sloppy killing has tangible consequences for consumers as well as for company profits. Fear and pain cause animals to produce hormones that damage meat and cost companies tens of millions of dollars a year in discarded products, according to industry estimates.
Industry officials say they also recognize an ethical imperative to treat animals with compassion. Science is blurring the distinction between the mental processes of humans and lower animals, discovering, for example, that even the lowly rat may dream. Americans thus are becoming more sensitive to the suffering of food animals, even as they consume increasing numbers of them.
Many violations
Clearly, not all plants have gotten the message.
A Washington Post computer analysis of government enforcement records found 527 violations of humane-handling regulations from 1996 to 1997, the last years for which complete records were available. The offenses range from overcrowded stockyards to incidents in which live animals were cut, skinned or scalded.
Through the Freedom of Information Act, the Post obtained enforcement documents from 28 plants that had high numbers of offenses or had drawn penalties for violating humane-handling laws. The Post also interviewed dozens of current and former federal meat inspectors and slaughterhouse workers. A reporter reviewed affidavits and secret video recordings made inside two plants.
Among the findings:
One Texas plant, Supreme Beef Packers in Ladonia, had 22 violations in six months. During one inspection, federal officials found nine live cattle dangling from an overhead chain. But managers at the plant, which announced last fall it was ceasing operations, resisted USDA warnings, saying its practices were no different from those of others in the industry.
At the Farmers Livestock Cooperative processing plant in Hawaii, inspectors documented 14 humane-slaughter violations in as many months. Records from 1997 and 1998 describe hogs that were walking and squealing after being stunned as many as four times. In a memo to the USDA, the company said it fired the stunner and increased monitoring of slaughtering.
At an Excel Corp. beef plant in Fort Morgan, Colo., production was halted for a day in 1998 after workers allegedly cut off the leg of a live cow whose limbs had become wedged in a piece of machinery. In imposing the sanction, U.S. inspectors cited a string of violations in the previous two years, including the cutting and skinning of live cattle. The company, responding to one such charge, contended that it was normal for animals to blink and arch their backs after being stunned and such "muscular reaction" can occur up to six hours after death. "None of these reactions indicate the animal is still alive," the company wrote to the USDA.
Hogs, unlike cattle, are dunked in tanks of hot water after they are stunned, to soften the hide for skinning. As a result, a botched slaughter condemns some hogs to being scalded and drowned. Secret videotape from an Iowa pork plant shows hogs squealing and kicking as they are being lowered into the water.
USDA documents and interviews with inspectors and plant workers attributed many of the problems to poor training, faulty or poorly maintained equipment or excessive production speeds.
Preventing this kind of suffering is officially a top priority for the USDA's inspection service. By law, a humane-slaughter violation is among a handful of offenses that can result in an immediate halt in production - and cost a meatpacker hundreds or even thousands of dollars each idle minute.
In reality, many inspectors describe humane slaughter as a blind spot: Inspectors' regular duties rarely take them to the chambers where stunning occurs. Inconsistencies in enforcement, training and record-keeping hamper the agency's ability to identify problems.
Some inspectors see little evidence the agency is interested in hearing about problems. Under the new inspection system, the USDA stopped tracking the number of violations and dropped all mention of humane slaughter from its list of rotating tasks for inspectors.
source: http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/apr01/ecoli10040901a.asp 10sep01
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