Report: U.S. Let Slaughter Plant Operate Despite Contamination

Federal food safety officials allowed an Omaha slaughter plant to operate for years despite a history of rat infestation and feces-contaminated meat, according to an Agriculture Department investigation.

“The system collapsed,” Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy said Thursday as he released the report that he had ordered from the department’s Office of Inspector General.

The report criticized the Cornhusker Packing Co., which Espy said would be used as a model for identifying what can go wrong with slaughter plants nationwide.

It also took the entire chain of command of the Food Safety and Inspection Service to task. Espy ordered the implementation of steps recommended by investigators to improve communications and supervision.

Espy ordered the report after CBS News aired a story on May 17 about conditions at the family-owned plant. The broadcast did not identify the plant, which slaughters cows and bulls for other plants to make into ground beef, but officials found it and closed it for five days starting May 20.

The plant shut down for a day in June to be fumigated for rodents, government investigators said. It now operates under tight supervision, the department noted.

The broadcast came as the department was trying to reassure the public about the safety of the meat supply after a deadly outbreak of food poisoning caused by E. coli bacteria in hamburgers.

According to the investigation, CBS aired the report after the inspection service’s Washington headquarters ignored anonymous memos, presumably from on-site inspectors, decrying conditions.

The report also noted that managers of the inspection service were so unaware of the plant’s troubled history that it was not visited by special teams ordered to check high-risk plants in March. Those inspections resulted in 30 plants being closed temporarily.

The report said Cornhusker posed added risks because of deteriorating plant conditions brought on by age, and because of “difficult plant management” who intimidated regular meat inspectors.

Espy ordered the Food Safety and Inspection Service to create a profile of Cornhusker to help identify other plants that fall into a high-risk category.