Westland/Hallmark Meat Company of Chino, California had issued history’s largest recall of ground beef. The said beef was found to be worth 143 million lbs. A certain portion of this exceptionally huge amount of beef had been used in several schools for their respective student lunch programs, as announced by officials from the Department of Agriculture. This controversial order for ground beef recall by the Westland/Hallmark Company arose following a scandal which featured a widened abuse of animals. This involved an undercover video footage which the Humane Society of the United States had released and distributed in January 30. The controversial video captured the workers of the said meat company forcing the sick cows to walk by kicking and threatening them with forklifts to stand.

The said video coverage had caused a lot of doubts with regards to the safety and suitability of these meats. Cows which are unable to walk, or downer cows, carry serious risks pertaining to safety issues. Certain risks include diseases such as mad cow disease. This is considered a major issue due to the fact that downer cows are strictly prohibited by the federal government from the supply of food.

Officials from the Department of Agriculture stated that there was an insignificant level of risk from the recalled ground beef since the cows had passed the pre-slaughter inspection. Besides, a major amount of this meat was already consumed as reiterated by Dr. Richard Raymond, food safety under secretary. 21 beefs which are related to deadly and severely harmful E. coli strain were recalled in the previous year as compared to 8 in the year 2006 and 5 in the year 2005. There is no clarification as what could have caused this alarming increase. However, there were some theories that correlate this increase with pathogens’ cyclical nature and modifications in the way the cattle is being fed brought about by ethanol boom.

On a technical note, the Agricultural Department is not authorized to perform meat recall. However, it has the right to pull out its people who are doing the inspection from the plant. This way, it is pushing the company to issue or release a recall. Public announcements classified this as Class II recall which means that health-related risks are remote. The other recalls which involve E. coli were Class I which indicates that consuming the meat products can cause severe problems related to health and even death. Representatives from Westland/Hallmark were not able to issue a comment. The Department of Agriculture had suspended the said meat company from supplying products to nutritional programs sponsored by the federal government.

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