USDA warns changes could delay meat recalls

CHICAGO (Reuters) - It took four hours under the U.S. Agriculture Department's voluntary recall system to begin the largest meat recall in history, while recalls under some proposed mandatory systems would have taken days to execute, a USDA official told Reuters on Monday.

"I do know that within 4 hours they (the beef plant) had issued the recall from the time we asked them to do the voluntary recall," Richard Raymond, agriculture undersecretary who oversees USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said during the Reuters Summit.

While no one was sickened by the recalled meat, the recall has increased pressure on USDA by lawmakers to implement a mandatory recall system. A mandatory system could include fines or jail time for violators, said Raymond.

Under some proposed mandatory recall systems the time could have been much longer, he said.

The recall by Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. in February was initiated after videos by the Humane Society of the United States showed fallen cattle being forced into the plant for processing, a violation of USDA regulations.

USDA asked for, and the company complied with, the recall of 143 million lbs of ground beef that was produced over a two-year period.

"Under one of the (mandatory) plans they would have asked for a two-day delay until we had a public hearing. Another plan we would notify them they had 15 days to think about it," said Raymond.

Also, Raymond said no meat company has ever refused to cooperate with a voluntary recall,

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)

(Reporting by Bob Burgdorfer)