USDA gets ball rolling for red meat irradiation
USDA will seek permission to have beef and other red meat irradiated to kill harmful bacteria.
Secretary Mike Espy said that USDA will ask FDA for approval to use low-level doses of radiation on food.
"We're going to ask them to review irradiation," he said.
FDA will have to review scientific evidence that the treatments work.
Irradiation can kill virtually all harmful bacteria that escape inspection such as the type known as E. coli O157:H7. Combined with thorough cooking and proper handling of raw foods, irradiation could solve many problems with bacterial contamination, according to USDA.
However, pork and poultry processors have declined to embrace irradiation, even though it has been approved for their industries. The industries cites concerns with consumer rejections.
So far only a few stores sell the irradiated poultry, which is treated at the Vindicator Inc. plant in Plant City, Fla.
At the plants, the birds are pre-packaged and exposed in a sealed room to radiation from cobalt 60, an isotope commonly used to treat cancer patients and sterilize medical equipment.
Parents of E. coli victim settle with Foodmaker
The parents of a 2-year-old boy who died after eating a contaminated hamburger at a Jack in the Box restaurant in Washington state have settled their lawsuit for $1.3 million.
Michael James Nole of Tacoma was the first of three children in Washington state whose deaths last winter were blamed on E. coli 0157:H7 traced to contaminated and undercooked Jack in the Box hamburgers. Michael died Jan. 22, 1993.
Hundreds became ill, mostly in Washington, because of the contaminated meat.
The settlement was reached with San Diego-based Foodmaker, parent company of Jack in the Box, said attorney Paul Luvera. He represented Michael's parents, Michael J. and Diana Dee Nole.
Diana Nole said she hoped publicity about the settlement would "send a message to the [meat] industry and to government" to tighten rules and reduce the risk of E. coli infections.
"There is no amount of money that could possibly make up for the nightmare we've gone through," she added. Sheree Zizzi, spokeswoman for Foodmaker, said the company has paid about $70,000 in medical bills incurred by Michael before he died.
"It has been our objective since the beginning to do what was right and to seek fair and equitable settlements for victims and their families," Zizzi said. "Our sorrow and condolences go out to the Nole family and other victims' families who suffered loss or illness."
The parents of the other deceased children, two in Washington and one in California, settled their lawsuits against Foodmaker earlier.
Inspectors to get power in reporting plant hazards
Officials from USDA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which will deputize USDA inspectors in recognizing and reporting safety hazards.
The memorandum tells how meat and poultry inspectors can learn to recognize and report serious workplace hazard or safety violations to OSHA.
The memorandum stems from a September 1991 fire at the Imperial Food Products Plant in Hamlet, N.C., where 25 people were killed.
Meat and poultry inspectors had observed safety violations prior to the blaze but were prevented by law to do anything about them. Nor did inspectors report the violations to OSHA officials.
An agreement between OSHA and USDA was reached shortly after the fire, but it remained in limbo for about two years. Labor unions had sought the USDA-OSHA arrangement.
Reps. Charlie Rose (D-N.C.) and William Ford (D-Ky.), in a November letter to USDA Secretary Mike Espy and Labor Secretary Robert Reich, accused the two departments of "foot-dragging" on the issue.
A controversial part of the memorandum is what constitutes "serious workplace hazards." More than 60 percent of OSHA regulations are considered "serious workplace hazards."
The memorandum is divided into three areas: training, developing coordinated standards between FSIS and OSHA, and referring hazardous workplace conditions to OSHA.
Industry safety experts said the memorandum is "bizarre and disjointed." The memorandum directs inspectors who find serious workplace hazards to FSIS officials, who in turn will refer the hazards to OSHA and notify plant management simultaneously.
By notifying Washington first, safety experts said plant managers may be left out of the process and corrective action may be delayed.
Clinton administration softens grazing fee stance
Responding to pressure from Western interests, the Clinton administration has scaled back its proposed increase in grazing fees.
A regulation currently being readied by the Interior Department would propose raising the monthly fee to $2.77 in the first year, $3.50 in the second and $3.96 in the third year.
An Interior Department spokesman told the Washington Post that while the numbers were not finalized, they were unlikely to change.
Last August, the Interior Department proposed raising grazing fees to $4.28. But the plan met strong resistance, and a subsequent compromise failed to overcome a filibuster by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.)
Under the new plan, ranchers who followed certain land-management practices would not have to pay the full $3.96. Instead, starting in the third year of the program they would be eligible for a 30 percent discount that would lower their grazing fees back to $2.77.
Fault line not the only thing to shift in California
In the aftermath of the Southern California earthquake in January-which killed 61 people, injured 9,000, caused an estimated $20 billion in damage and displaced thousands of people-priorities have been altered.
And among the shifting priorities is people's diets, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. Side orders of bacon and sausage have increased in the weeks following the earthquake at International House of Pancakes.
The newspaper reported that Wheatberry toast and decaffeinated coffee were the norm before the quake at one Los Angeles eatery, "but suddenly it has become eggs Benedict with extra hollandaise sauce, a fruit plate and a heftier portion of hash browns," one waiter told the newspaper.
"Everybody did it," he added. "It amazed me."
New NCA chief sees great 'opportunity' for industry
Dan Koons believes the beef industry is standing on the brink of its greatest opportunity.
"That opportunity is to develop a long-range plan for our industry, consistently meeting consumer needs and increasing market shares," he said.
Koons will have a chance to help steer the industry in that direction. He is the new National Cattlemen's Association president for 1994.
Koons said the challenges that face 1990s cattlemen are unlike challenges of the past because they include social issues, not just economic or industry issues.
But Koons also pointed out that he wants cattlemen to maintain their heritage and traditions.
"We must embrace change to keep our industry viable," he said. "But let us continue the tradition of accepting challenges so that our children may enjoy the bounty of the [beef] industry."
Koons said he plans to use his position not only to recruit members to NCA, but to have more participation. "Cattlemen need to get involved; they need to participate in the process," he stressed.
Beef may be fat and expensive,
but it is also good and manly
Where's the beef? It is back on America's dinner plates.
Americans are starting to eat beef again because even though it is fat, expensive and possibly unhealthy, it also tastes good.
It may also do wonders for a man's sex drive.
After years of cutting back, beef-eating is on the rise again.
Three new upscale steak houses opened in New York last year, and the beef industry has spent $42 million on advertising.
In one New York steak house, you can even get Kobe beef for a mere $100 a portion.
And beef is macho.
With the exception of Fourth of July, more beef is eaten on Father's Day (80 million pounds) than on any other day of the year.
It is also true that millions of men who can't boil an egg, can put on aprons and grill steaks and hamburgers.
But beef's greatest attribute might be its effect on a man's libido.
Spanish wives traditionally buy a steak cut from the bravest bull of the afternoon's bullfight in hopes it will enhance their husband's (or significant other's, if you will) manliness. And here we've been wasting time on oysters.
Conversely, 19th century schoolmasters put adolescent boys on a vegetarian diet to calm the lads' raging hormones. We surmise that cold showers were not in vogue as of yet.
Burger King refocuses marketing effort
Burger King, the world's second-largest hamburger chain, is undertaking a business review intended to cut costs, reduce staff, improve service, cut its menu offerings and reemphasize its best-known product-the Whopper.
The changes-many of which parallel recent reaffirmations of the traditional hamburger business by fast-food king McDonald's Corp.-are beginning this spring, James B. Adamson, Burger King's CEO, told the Wall Street Journal.
Part of the restructuring will include value in advertising and product pricing-something McDonald's, Wendy's and other competitors have been doing. Burger King only recently embraced a three-tier value menu after Adamson concluded that customers are increasingly insistent on getting more for their fast-food dollar.
A main point to the new strategy will be a revival of the chain's 1970s "Have it Your Way" slogan.
Similarly, the Whopper will be front and center in advertisements.
Adamson noted that no other fast-food chain flame-broils its burgers. "I want to take full advantage of that difference," he pointed out. "I want to hammer it home."
In recent years, Burger King cleaned up service and eating areas, added a popular Kids' Club, and expanded the menu with such winners as the BK Broiler, a non-fried chicken sandwich.
But the competition, led by McDonald's, put a renewed emphasis on service, product selection and value.
Wendy's, which skirted with financial disaster, has come alive thanks to the emergence of founder Dave Thomas as its spokesman.
As a result, Burger King's share of the $32.8-billion, fast-food market has stalled. It had a 16.6 percent share in 1991, but dropped to 16.2 percent in 1992.
Meanwhile, McDonald's held steady at 40.4 percent during the same period, and Wendy's increased from 9.5 percent to 10.1 percent.