FSIS Update Of Recall Activities
February 9, 2004

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2004 –USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is providing the following update today on the December 23, 2003 Class II recall of raw, boneless beef and other products that may have been exposed to tissues containing the agent that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).  The recall was initiated out of an abundance of caution.

FSIS' designation of the recall as Class II was due to the extremely low likelihood that the products contained the infectious agent that causes BSE.  According to scientific evidence, the tissues of highest infectivity are the brain, spinal cord, and distal ileum.  All were removed from the carcass on the day of slaughter. Therefore, the meat produced were cuts that would not be expected to be infected or have an adverse public health impact.

• Shortly after USDA diagnosed a presumptive positive case of BSE on Dec. 23, FSIS initiated a recall and issued a press release that was distributed nationally. Simultaneously, its recall management division began collecting distribution information from the establishments that slaughtered and processed meat from the affected animal. Over the course of several weeks, FSIS Enforcement, Investigation and Analysis Officers and FSIS Compliance Officers, aided by other federal and state agencies, completed the painstaking process of tracing the entire distribution chain, contacting and/or visiting every establishment that may have received product to ensure that all products that had not been used had been secured. They determined that approximately 578 establishments received products related to the recall. The number is inclusive of every facility that produced, processed, distributed, sold at retail or served products subject to the recall.
   
• FSIS has verified that that every establishment that may have received product was notified and had secured any remaining product. The Agency is now working to verify the return and destruction of the recalled products.
   
• Shortly after the announcement of the recall by FSIS, retail grocery chains in Washington, Oregon, Californian and Idaho issued press releases informing their customers of the recall. Other retail establishments posted signs informing their customers that they may have received products subject to recall. Establishments that may have received products acted swiftly to secure any products they had that may have been part of the recall.
   
• Products subject to recall were shipped beginning on Dec. 11. Most of the product subject to recall was fresh ground beef which was distributed and sold primarily to grocery stores and restaurants prior to the initiation of the recall.
   
• As is often the case with product following multiple distribution chains, additional beef was mixed in with the original beef products at several points in the distribution network. All became subject to recall. Because of this, the total amount of meat distributed subject to the recall was approximately 38,000 pounds.
   
• Among the total, approximately 3,000 pounds of soup bones were distributed to restaurants in California. FSIS verification checks established that the soup bones, which also are a negligible risk product, were largely sold and or used prior to the beginning of the recall on Dec. 23.
   
• Approximately 21,000 pounds of product has been returned.

Consumers with food safety questions can phone the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline. The hotline is available in English and Spanish and can be reached from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Eastern Time), Monday through Friday. Recorded food safety messages are available 24 hours a day.

NOTE: Access news releases and other information at the FSIS Web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov