TV Show Sparks Probe of 5 Meatpacking Plants

Federal investigators were ordered Friday to investigate five meatpacking plants accused of processing beef contaminated with dirt, hair, animal wastes and other foreign material.

Agriculture Secretary Edward R. Madigan said he was launching the review after a television broadcast Thursday by ABC’s “Prime Time Live” raised questions about inspection procedures at the plants and allegations of contamination.

“Each and every beef carcass is supposed to undergo a rigorous, 19-point review by government meat inspectors,” Madigan said. “If there are lapses, I want certain, swift crackdowns to ensure food safety.”

Madigan said the Agriculture Department’s inspector general’s office will begin a review Monday of all federal meat inspectors at the five plants to determine if they are doing their jobs.

The sites include Excel Corp. plants in Friona and Plainview, Tex; Monfort Inc. plants in Greeley, Colo., and Grand Island, Neb., and the National Beef Packing Inc. plant in Liberal, Kan.

The plants are sites of a pilot government inspection system known as Streamlined Inspection System-Cattle.

A special team of Washington-based meat inspectors will also conduct unannounced visits at all meat plants nationwide to determine if food safety rules are in force, Madigan said.

Plants found to be in violation “will be closed until they are brought into compliance,” he said.

Carol Tucker Foreman, a consumer activist and former assistant secretary of agriculture, said the department was defeating any undercover investigation by announcing it in advance.

“It’s like sending them (investigators) out with a cowbell around their necks: ‘Clang, clang, clang, fellows. Here we come on a secret investigation,’ ” she said.

Madigan also said the inspector general’s office will investigate allegations that an unnamed official at the Agriculture Department in Washington overruled a meat inspector on a question of food safety.

And on Monday, a 10-member scientific panel is to begin an evaluation of the Streamlined Inspection System on beef to determine if it is safeguarding public health. Madigan said the review is to be completed by May 20.