Dangerous hide-and-seek with recalled meat.(Viewpoint: the consumers union perspective)

Government agencies such as the Consumer Product Safety Commission have the authority to order recalls of toys and other products if they are deemed potentially dangerous. But when meat is infected with E. coli, listeria, or in one instance, mad cow disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not have the authority to order a recall--it can only encourage meat processors to recall their meat voluntarily.

The USDA does not give state officials information about the locations of stores and restaurants that have received recalled meat unless the state agrees to keep the names of the retailers secret from the public. The absurdity of this policy was revealed in January 2004 in California, one of 12 states reported to have signed such a secrecy agreement. The state received a shipment of beef products subject to a voluntary recall because it included meat and bones from a cow that tested positive for mad cow disease. The meat and bones were mixed with 38,000 pounds of other beef and sold in California and five other states.

But while California officials had received that information, California consumers had no way of knowing which grocery stores or restaurants got any of the tainted products, because the state had agreed to keep that information secret.

Thirty-eight states have not signed the USDXs secrecy agreement. As a result, the USDA does not give officials there the names of the retailers in those states that have received the recalled meat.

The policy is not only absurd, but also dangerous. While it appears that there has not yet been a case of a person contracting the human form of mad cow disease from contaminated beef eaten in the U.S., the disease is always fatal. And the USDA typically recovers only about 38 percent of recalled meat, poultry, and egg products.

The government argues that meat processors view the names of retailers as confidential business information and will resist the release of beef recall information unless it is protected from disclosure. But even though California officials were told which retailers had received the recalled beef, consumers were not better protected by the policy. It took 14 days from the time the infected cow was slaughtered for the USDA to issue a voluntary recall, and another week for local ...