Suspect Beef in Southland Sold at One Store in O.C.

A Vietnamese supermarket in Orange County where about 1,000 pounds of beef was recalled because it could be infected with “mad cow” disease is the only outlet in Southern California where suspect meat has reached consumers, authorities said Friday.

The A Chau supermarket in Fountain Valley was notified by a distributor Dec. 24 that the meat was being recalled because of a remote chance of infection. Robert Tran, manager of the family-owned market, said it sold about 900 pounds of the boneless tenderloin and hind shank from Dec. 19 through 24.

Signs in Vietnamese, English and Chinese, advising customers to return the meat for a refund, were posted Dec. 27.

None has been returned, he said.

Tran said the market pulled the 100 pounds of unsold meat from the shelves after receiving the fax. He said the store waited to put up the signs asking that the meat be returned until an inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture checked to make certain the meat was covered by the recall.

Tran said he was sure some beef would have been returned had the signs gone up more quickly.

“I apologize for that,” he said. “I had no idea what was wrong with it. When they faxed us the letter, we didn’t know what was wrong with the meat. We weren’t sure if it was for ‘mad cow’ or they just wanted to take a look at it.”

With word of the recall, some customers are anxious, said Nga Nguyen, assistant supervisor in the meat department.

Instead of their usual queries about meat preparation, “They wanted to know if they were going to become crazy,” she said. “I tell them if anyone goes crazy, it would be us,” because employees get first choice of meat.

The voluntary recall is “Class II,” according to Steve Cohen, a spokesman for the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, meaning “the risk to consumers is virtually zero.”

The recall began Dec. 23 after a Holstein from a Washington farm tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as “mad cow” disease. At least 36 countries have banned the importation of American beef.

There is a “remote possibility” that meat from that cow made it to the Fountain Valley market, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Scientists think that bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a fatal disease that eats holes in the animal’s brain, is transmitted when cows are fed material containing infected animal parts, a practice the USDA banned in 1997. Humans can contract a deadly form of the disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, from eating infected meat. Heating the meat does not kill the disease.

The disease can be passed when humans eat cow brain, spinal cord tissue and lower intestines. The cuts of beef at the Fountain Valley market were boneless and did not contain that tissue, Cohen said.

Beef has been recalled in California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, Montana and Guam.

Cohen said less than 20 outlets in California were affected, but the USDA would not release the names of restaurants, slaughterhouses and distributors whose beef was recalled.

The Orange County Health Care Agency identified the Fountain Valley market.

A call to A Chau’s supplier, Willamette Valley Meat Co. in Portland, Ore., was not returned. Rosemary Mucklow, executive director of the National Meat Assn. in Oakland, said she had no knowledge of the small meat firm until the recall. The supermarket’s meat counter, with recall signs taped to the glass, was bustling Friday. Many Vietnamese shop for groceries daily because they prefer fresh ingredients and have easy access to the markets in and around Little Saigon.

The notice disturbed 63-year-old Hoa Le, who read it twice. It was the first time she’d heard of “mad cow” disease. She bought several pounds of hind shank on Dec. 24.

“I’m not eating beef any more,” she said.