U.S. to Warn Sooner About Tainted Meat

The Agriculture Department will warn the public more quickly about contaminated meat in the future, officials said yesterday as they sought to quell criticism of an 18-day delay in seeking the recall of millions of pounds of tainted ground beef.

Department officials acknowledged that they knew as early as Sept. 7 that frozen hamburger patties could be contaminated, after preliminary tests indicated the presence of E. coli O157:H7 bacteria. They said it was impossible to seek a recall without conducting a more sophisticated test to confirm the original results, but said they would reevaluate how the department could warn the public sooner in such cases.

"We weren't able to take action based on the initial test," said David Goldman, assistant administrator of the department's Office of Public Health Science. "This agency is not completely satisfied with the time elapsed and the issuance of the recall. We will be reviewing data related to this recall as well as our own protocol to determine how we might improve."

Richard Raymond, the department's under secretary for food safety, added: "It's a policy we will be changing here."

An Agriculture Department e-mail showed that the department knew on Sept. 7 about possible contamination but waited 18 days before concluding that Topps Meat should issue a recall.

The recall that began Sept. 25 was soon expanded to 21.7 million pounds of hamburger produced by Topps, making it the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history.

A Florida teenager was hospitalized with kidney failure in August, and the meat her family bought was tested by the Agriculture Department.

The e-mail -- from inspector Kis Robertson, an employee of the department's Food Safety Inspection Service -- was provided by the teenager's family's lawyer, Scott P. Schlesinger. "They should have recalled immediately. That's not even a maybe," Schlesinger said.

Asked about the delay, Topps spokeswoman Michele Williams referred questions to the Agriculture Department. "We've been fully cooperating with their investigation, and certainly taking their recommendations," she said.

Department officials said the Sept. 7 preliminary results yielded 13 negative samples of the questionable ground beef and one positive result. Subsequently, scientists conducted a more sophisticated test that took seven days. After those results became available Sept. 14, the department looked to see whether the suspected meat could have been contaminated in the consumer's home.

The department does not seek a recall in such situations until it gets a second confirmation elsewhere, which it received days later when New York officials reported they had run their own tests on a separate suspected E coli case and the beef had tested positive.

Raymond acknowledged that the department could have sought a recall as early as Sept. 14. The department in the future will do so if officials have strong evidence of contamination, regardless of whether the tested meat had been opened in a home, he said.

"There's always a possibility of contamination in the home rather than the place of manufacture, but it's unlikely," Raymond said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 29 people in eight states had E. coli infections matching the strain found in the Topps patties. None has died. None of the cases were in the Washington area.

The recall includes all Topps with either a "sell by date" or a "best if used by date" from Sept. 25 this year to Sept. 25, 2008. All recalled products also have the Agriculture Department establishment number EST 9748. A list of the recalled products is available at http://www.toppsmeat.com.

Company officials have said they think much of the recalled meat has already been eaten. Thorough cooking, to at least 160 degrees, can destroy the bacteria.