Walmart And Sam's Club Require Enhanced Beef Safety Measures

BENTONVILLE, Ark.—Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. are implementing additional beef safety measures designed to further protect customers against foodborne illnesses. The new process control standards and goals are additions to a food safety program that already requires ground beef suppliers to test for E.coli O 157:H7 and achieve prevention-based certification against one of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) internationally recognized standards.

The new program requires Walmart and Sam's Club beef suppliers to implement controls that would significantly reduce potential contamination levels and validate that the measures they've implemented are effective through specialized testing.

Suppliers who do not operate slaughter houses must be in compliance with the new standard by June 2011.  For beef slaughterhouse suppliers, there is a two-step approach with the first step to be completed by June 2011 and the second by June 2012.

Walmart and Sam's Club will work closely with beef suppliers to ensure that the new requirement is implemented without additional cost to customers.  
The protocol has been reviewed with numerous stakeholders including consumer groups, regulators, academicians, beef suppliers, and industry associations.

According to Jim Dickson, Iowa State University Professor of Animal Science, "Walmart is taking a progressive approach to assuring the safety of the foods they sell. This is a win for the consumers, the beef industry in general, and Walmart. The lessons learned from Walmart's approach will be applicable to ground beef sold everywhere."

Several consumer groups have also expressed support for the measure.