Downer Cow Concerns Sparked Recall
February 27th, 2008 laurie
Much of the outrage over the nation’s largest beef recall came at the sight of the Humane Society video exposing cattle torture at Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. But that wasn’t the reason the beef was recalled.
Instead, the beef was recalled because meat from “downer cattle” was slaughtered. Cows that cannot stand, or show paralysis, are considered downers, and are a likely source of Mad Cow Disease and numerous other sources of contamination.
The recalled meat was mostly ground meat – likely pre-made beef burgers – and distributed to many school lunch programs across the country. Ground meat is the most likely to be contaminated because contamination that attaches to the surface of meat – typically killed when the meat is cooked in steak form – is ground into the mass for burgers, potentially tainting the whole supply.
So far, no illnesses have been reported from the meat of Hallmark/Westland meat recall, and it is believed much of the meat has already been consumed. No contamination was found at the Hallmark/Westland facility.












