010852 Sara Lee Plant Bosses Knew of Tainted Meat

Detroit, MI - Managers at a Sara Lee Corp. plant in Michigan likely knew that some of its hot dogs and deli meats were tainted, months before a fatal outbreak of food-borne disease in 1998, workers and meat inspectors said in a report cited by the Detroit Free Press.

The Detroit Free Press said the report by Agriculture Department investigators concluded that managers at the Bil Mar foods plant in Zeeland, Michigan, knew or should have known that the meats were contaminated.

The meat was linked to a nationwide outbreak of listeriosis blamed for more than a dozen deaths. In June, Sara Lee pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of producing and distributing adulterated meat. US Attorney Phillip Green said in a statement on Thursday that the workers' allegations made in early 1999 recounted in the report were thoroughly investigated and that there was no evidence Sara Lee knew the products were adulterated.

“The evidence obtained during this investigation failed to substantiate any of these allegations,” Green said. “It was determined that the evidence did not substantiate that Sara Lee knowingly and/or willfully distributed adulterated meat.”

The misdemeanor charge was based on the evidence obtained and the resolution of the case was appropriate, he added.

A Sara Lee spokeswoman said the company was still reviewing the investigators' report, which it obtained from the Free Press late on Wednesday.

“The government investigation uncovered no evidence that Bil Mar knowingly produced meat food products that contained listeria monocytogenes nor that the company intentionally distributed any adulterated meat product,” she said.

An employee of the plant cited in the report claimed to have known with “virtual certainty” that meat produced by the plant contained listeria monocytogenes--the bacteria that causes listeriosis--and that management had “a similar level of awareness,” the Free Press said.

A federal meat inspector also told investigators that Bil Mar managers were aware the plant had increased levels of listeria about eight months before the nationwide listeriosis outbreak that killed 15, the newspaper said. But, the inspector said, management intentionally “skirted the law” and shipped meats without testing them, the newspaper said.

In their report, the USDA's investigators included summaries of interviews with at least three current or former Bil Mar workers and an employee of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service assigned to the plant, the newspaper said. The identities of those interviewed were deleted before the report was released to the Free Press, the newspaper said.

Chicago-based Sara Lee was fined $200,000, reached a $1.2 million civil settlement with the government and also agreed to pay $3 million to fund food safety research at Michigan State University as part of its plea agreement.

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