Meat Recall Takes Its Toll

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After the Humane Society released its investigative video showing the abuse of downer cattle at the Westland/Hallmark meat company in Chino, California, the government issued the biggest beef recall in the country's history.

The story filled headlines for weeks, but is hitting some businesses hard.

According to USA Today, the full costs of that recall are beginning to emerge and they are hitting retailers, meat processors, other businesses and the government.

The article says that in California alone, more than $1.1 million has been spent to destroy the beef and products containing it - including some 4.2 million pounds of beef and 155,000 cases of processed food - that were distributed via the federal school lunch program. Though 46 states received the tainted beef for their school lunch programs, the meat plant was located in California, which is likely why that state received so much of it, the article says.

Also in California, almost 15,000 retailers, restaurants, schools, hospitals and others received Westland beef or products containing the beef, according to a list published by the California Department of Public Health.

The USDA will reimburse states with credits or commodities to cover lost products and destruction expenses.

Hundreds of companies used beef from Hallmark/Westland, and each is supposed to inform consumers of this. Rosemary Mucklow, executive director of the National Meat Association, said in the article that some smaller meat firms will be ruined as a result of the recall.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association said that because the size of this recall is unprecedented, the final cost may reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

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