000419 IBP Subsidiary Target of Criminal ProbeApril 8, 2000Washington - The record keeping practices of a Chicago-based meatpacker are the target of a criminal investigation as the result of a government probe into allegations that a banned carcinogen got into a beef shipment to Switzerland. The alleged irregularities involving the Bruss Co., a subsidiary of IBP Inc., turned up during the USDA’s attempt to track the beef that Swiss officials say contained the illegal hormone known as DES, USDA officials say. “When we began looking into the DES issue some problems became apparent that we are now investigating,” Beth Gaston, a spokeswoman for USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said. The bookkeeping problems haven't changed the department's conclusion that DES was never present in the beef, she said. Evidence of criminal wrongdoing will be turned over to the Justice Department, she said. According to a status report on the investigation, “product identification problems” at Bruss prevented USDA from tracing meat beyond “several slaughter plants and numerous slaughter dates of thousands of animals from hundreds of producers. “Based on what we've heard it appears to be a paperwork issue, not a food- safety issue,” IBP spokesman Gary Mickelson said, adding that “food safety is paramount at IBP.”
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