Union Report Alleges Failure of Food Safety at Kosher Firm

A new report accuses Agriprocessors, the largest kosher meat firm in the U.S., of violating food safety laws and failing to protect consumers from the risk of E.coli and mad cow disease.

The claims could put further pressure on the country's meat processors to step up to the food safety mark, as U.S. lawmakers are now cracking down on food safety plants across the country.

The latest report was compiled by the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) from Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) documents, and details a number of food safety incidences that allegedly took place at Agriprocessors' Nebraska plant between 2005 and 2007.

According to the union, the company failed separate specified risk material (SRM) such as the spinal cord from meat products, "including one occasion in which products containing SRM was labelled, weighed and taped shut."

SRM material must by law be removed from the food chain due to the risk of mad cow disease, an acute infectious disease which causes fever and blisters, especially in the mouth and on the feet of animals such as cows, sheep and pigs.

The plant was also accused of transmitting the E. coli bacteria, a pathogen that can cause severe human food poisoning, through its meat. The report claims that the firm improperly tested for the bacteria on a number of occasions, leading to a non-compliance (NR) record being issued in March 2007.

Read the full FoodProductionDaily.com story here.