Food & Agriculture

Consumer Groups Applaud Final Rule on Retail Grinding Logs

New Rules Will Enable Tracking of Beef Contamination

 |  Press Release

Washington, D.C. – Members of the Safe Food Coalition today applauded the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s release of a final rule to require detailed recordkeeping from retail establishments that grind and sell raw beef products. This rule will improve the traceability of contaminated food, and help protect consumers from being exposed to contaminated meat products.

“USDA’s new rule will better protect consumers from foodborne illness by enabling USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) to quickly identify the source of an outbreak. It will also give suppliers and retailers the information they need to conduct recalls more efficiently, and to pull contaminated food from shelves with less delay,” said the groups. “We are grateful to Secretary Vilsack and USDA for their efforts to finalize this important consumer protection rule.”

FSIS investigations of foodborne illness reports have been stymied by incomplete recordkeeping at grinding establishments. For example, FSIS was unable to track down the source of contaminated meat that caused a 2011 multi-drug resistant outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium, which sickened 20 persons and led to 8 hospitalizations. Food safety investigators linked the outbreak to ground beef purchased from Maine-based grocery chain Hannaford, but from there the trail went cold. Hannaford did not keep detailed records of its grinding operations and sources, and it engaged in “high risk practices” for grinding beef. As a result, FSIS could not determine the ultimate source of the contamination. This rule will help to prevent similar failures in the future.

Under the new rule, all official establishments and retail stores that grind beef products will have to maintain records of source materials and suppliers, and also documentation that grinding equipment and other related food-contact surfaces are cleaned and sanitized before using new source materials.

The Safe Food Coalition is made up of consumer groups, public health groups, groups representing victims of foodborne illness, and labor organizations dedicated to reducing the burden of foodborne illness in the United States by improving government food inspection programs.

Safe Food Coalition members include:

  • Center for Foodborne Illness, Research and Prevention, Pat Buck, 724-992-1969
  • Center for Science in the Public Interest, David Plunkett, 202-332-9110
  • Consumer Federation of America, Thomas Gremillion, 202-939-1010
  • Consumers Union, William Wallace, 202-462-6262
  • Food & Water Watch, Tony Corbo, 202-683-2449
  • National Consumers League, Sally Greenberg, 202-835-3323
  • STOP Foodborne Illness, Darin Detwiler, 425-232-5743
  • Government Accountability Project, Amanda Hitt, 202-457-0034

Contact: Thomas Gremillion, 202-939-1010

CFA is an association of more than 250 nonprofit consumer groups that was founded in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, advocacy and education.