040117 Recalled Beef Served in Nevada County (CA)

Sacramento, CA (Sacramento Bee) - Three weeks after federal officials issued a recall of beef linked to a mad cow report, news that three restaurants in Nevada County had received the meat trickled out from local health authorities.

County officials did not release the names of the restaurants or their locations but said the health risk was low. The beef was served before the U.S. Department of Agriculture recalled 10,000 pounds of hamburger on Dec. 24.

UCDavis Health Federal authorities reported two days earlier that the nation's first case of mad cow disease had surfaced in a Holstein cow from a dairy in Mabton, Wash.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture notified counties that received potentially tainted beef on Jan. 2. While an agreement with federal authorities prohibits state officials from releasing recall information, the counties can break the deal if they feel there's an imminent threat to public health.

Revealing the information could cost them access to future recall notices, though. None of the counties has so far released names without permission from the businesses involved.

Nevada County Health Officer Ken Culter has known since Jan. 2 that three restaurants in his jurisdiction received beef processed at the plant in Moses Lake, Wash., but didn't disseminate the information until Wednesday.

He released it then, he said, only because other county offices had received calls from local residents. Federal officials classified the risk of infection as low, Culter said, and he wanted to be certain that other retail outlets had not sold the beef.

"There was a lot of recalled meat, and the chance that the meat would make anyone ill is extremely remote," Culter said.

Consumer advocates responded angrily.

"These folks are more interested in public relations than telling people what they have a right to know," said Michael Hanson, spokesman for Consumers Union in Washington, D.C.

Culter, however, said he wanted more information. "We were investigating to see if there was any meat that could be recalled from grocery stores," he said. There wasn't.

He added that all the beef had been served to customers before the county or the restaurants received notice of the recall.

Hanson, however, said that consumers who ate the beef should be allowed to determine the information's importance.

"This really shows why we need the USDA to have mandatory recall authority and why disclosure of these situations has to be made immediately," he said.

Unlike all other food products, meat and beef recalls are voluntary. So, federal officials do not force retailers or restaurants to identify themselves.

After receiving information from meat processors and distributors, the USDA shares details with states and municipalities that have agreed to keep them secret.

The companies view their customer lists as proprietary, and Congress has declined to give USDA authority to require disclosure. Nevada County's announcement makes it the ninth California county to say it received beef from the Washington plant.

Cutler said no public health interest would be served by disclosing the names of the restaurants.

"If I thought the information was useful to safeguard health, we'd release it," he said. "But at this point, we are abiding by the agreement between the state and the USDA."

Mad cow disease, known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is caused by a microscopic rogue protein called a prion that eats holes in the animal's brain and spinal cord.

Humans who eat beef containing brain or spinal tissue from an infected cow can develop a fatal, brain- wasting illness, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Consuming a single prion is enough to trigger the disease, but those exposed might not know for 10 years. That's apparently how long it takes the disease to manifest itself in humans. In cattle, it takes 30 months.

The notice that three restaurants in Nevada County served beef from the Washington plant comes after an announcement that three restaurants in South Lake Tahoe also served it.

The meat was likely served as legions of skiers hit the snowy slopes of the Truckee-Tahoe area just before Christmas break.

Lynn Saunders, president and chief executive officer of the Truckee Chamber of Commerce, said news of the recalled beef shouldn't have any impact on local businesses.

"Any beef that was here a month ago is long gone by now," Saunders said. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with the meat that is here now."

Dick Howell, owner of OB's Pub & Restaurant in Truckee, said that he did not receive any of the Washington beef but that he was concerned the secrecy surrounding the recall would affect his business anyway. "We're all being painted guilty by association," he said.

On the south side of Lake Tahoe, area resorts reported no reaction to the mad cow story and anticipated none.

"It's business as usual," said John Packer, director of entertainment and public relations for Harrah's Tahoe and Harvey's, two of the biggest casino resorts in Stateline, Nev. "We're sold out for the three-day weekend, and our restaurants are booked full."

The Nevada and El Dorado county announcements caught some in the meat industry off guard.

"I'm a little surprised that they would come out a week later and say, 'Oh, we found some more,'" said Ben Higgins, executive vice president at the California Cattlemen's Association.

Still, he said, a recall "is a process that takes time. I don't think it'll take that much longer."

But Dean Cliver, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who recently served on a mad cow advisory committee for the USDA, said the late Nevada County report does nothing to bolster consumer confidence.

"This strikes me as being like the farmer who cut off the lamb's tail an inch at time so it wouldn't hurt," Cliver said. "It just promotes general anxiety."

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