Massive meat recall // 25 million pounds possibly contaminated

WASHINGTON Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman on Thursdayannounced the largest food recall in U.S. history, as Hudson Foodscalled back 25 million pounds of possibly contaminated meat productsthat had come from a plant in Nebraska.

Glickman said the plant will be closed until Hudson assuresfederal inspectors that it complies with testing and record-keepingprocedures designed to keep meat from the markets. Ground beef fromthe plant, which is distributed nationwide, has been linked to anoutbreak of E-coli bacteria contamination that sickened more than adozen people in Colorado.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said theHudson hamburger patties may have been distributed to all 48contiguous states. The plant's major customers include Safeway,Wal-Mart, Burger King, Sam's Club and Boston Market, officials said.Those companies have removed all Hudson products from their supplies.The 25 million pounds of meat would feed the entire Chicagopopulation - nearly 2.8 million people - a quarter-pound burger a dayfor more than five weeks. But it is only a small fraction of the 8billion pounds of ground beef of all types produced in the countryeach year. And the Columbus, Neb., plant accounts for less than 7percent of Hudson Food's sales, the company said.The plant will not open until the company has adopted "far morestringent safety standards that we have specifically laid out forthem based on what we have found in our investigation," Glickmansaid. The announcement means the recall is growing about 20-foldfrom last Friday. Hudson Foods said in a statement that it hadordered the recall "out of an abundance of caution and to restore thepublic confidence."Glickman said fewer than 20 people are known to have gotten sickfrom the tainted meat."We continue to monitor the situation very closely, but all theevidence at this point indicates that we have contained theoutbreak," he said.Recalls were announced last week, first with 20,000 pounds ofmeat, then another 20,000, and last Friday it became 1.2 millionpounds.The initial Hudson recall began after health officials inColorado traced the illnesses of more than a dozen people tohamburger patties they ate in early June.The Agriculture Department has evidence that the contaminationoccurred not in the plant, but at one or more of the slaughterhousesthat supply it, said Tom Billy, administrator of the USDA's FoodSafety and Inspection Service.That has made it difficult to know when the last of the taintedmeat left the plant, officials said.E. coli is a potentially deadly bacteria that often gets intofood through contact with fecal matter. It causes severe diarrhea,cramps and dehydration.People can call the USDA hotline for information at (800)535-4555, or Hudson's hotline at (800) 447-2670.