2009 CPEO Brownfields List Archive

From: "Schnapf, Lawrence" <Lawrence.Schnapf@srz.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:27:50 -0800 (PST)
Reply: cpeo-brownfields
Subject: [CPEO-BIF] (no subject)
 

The New York Times recently ran an article on e-coli contamination in meat. One of the issues that surfaced from this investigation was how slaughterhouse prevented their customers from sampling meat that was to be sold to consumers. This reminded me of the "no look" provisions common in many corporate transactions where purchasers are contractually prevented from sampling for contamination.

Several well-intentioned persons claimed that the transparent regime I proposed would complicate the re-use of contaminated sites or stigmatize properties. I have suggested that greater transparency would actually benefit purchasers of properties because it would even the playing field.

Well, the NY Times ran a follow-up article today on the contaminated meat and guess what- the slaughterhouses are starting to change their practices. Here is an exerpt of some key portions of the article [emphasis added]:

".....But while slaughterhouses seek to limit such contamination, and conduct their own testing for the pathogen, they have resisted independent testing by grinders for fear that it would cause expanded recalls. The retail giant Costco, which makes its own ground beef, has been one of the few retailers to insist on such testing by its grinding facility as an added consumer protection.

AFA Foods has defended its testing protocols, saying they meet the beef industry’s “best practices” guidelines.

However, the company added on Thursday that it was re-evaluating its testing procedures. “In addition to those controls, Fairbank is evaluating the addition of another firewall such as additional testing of incoming product,” the company said.

Asked about the move by Trader Joe’s to terminate its relationship, the company said: “We respect each retailer’s right to select their suppliers. And any retailer may dictate a quality assurance protocol for their suppliers to follow to protect their customers. Our finished product testing protocol is the most stringent in the industry and that continues to be a selling point with our customers.”

The United States Department of Agriculture, which banned the deadly E. coli strain known as 0157:H7 in 1994, has encouraged but does not require meat companies to test their products for the pathogen. In the absence of such a rule, meat companies have adopted varied practices.

But in recent weeks, a growing number of meat industry officials have said they endorse trim testing by grinders despite resistance by slaughterhouses and some trade groups. Grinders typically use trimmings from multiple suppliers, these food safety experts say, and only ingredient testing, when it uncovers E. coli, enables grinders to identify the slaughterhouse that shipped the contaminated trim.

“The raw material sampling really helps you do the trace back needed to go back to someone and say, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, you’ve controlled this for a long time, what’s changed?’ ” said Dr. David M. Theno, a consultant who became a food safety officer at Jack in the Box after the fast food chain’s deadly outbreak of E. coli in 1992, which prompted the government ban on 0157:H7.

Dr. Theno, who retired last year, said he worked with Costco and AFA Foods’ predecessor company to devise new safety systems, and he confirmed previous statements by AFA Foods officials that they started testing trim at their grinding facilities, like Costco did, but then stopped when slaughterhouses balked at selling them trim.

Like most ground beef producers, Fairbank Farms uses multiple suppliers of trimmings, and the limits of its finished product testing became apparent in 2007 when it found E. coli in its ground beef and could not determine which of the trim suppliers had been the source.

Even some institutional food preparers say they have not fully appreciated the risks in ground beef. In a second outbreak of E. coli in hamburger this fall, which officials traced to a Massachusetts meat company, 30 children were sickened by burgers served at a camp whose owner said he has taken hamburgers off the menu.

“We were caught unawares,” said Arnold Gerson, the owner of Camp Bournedale in Plymouth, Mass. “When you go to a market and pull things off the shelf, you expect things will be safe and O.K. So we’ve got to be so very, very careful.”


Once again, I think the experience with this industry should be instructive to the environmental disclosure issue.

For those of you who want to read the NY Times article, here is the link:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/us/13ecoli.html?_r=1

Larry

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