Beef Products facilities continually contaminated, exempt from FDA inspection

The company which pioneered the use of ammonia to prevent E. coli contamination in beef has been guilty of shipping tainted beef numerous times in the recent past.

According to a New York Times report, Beef Products Inc, of South Dakota, convinced the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture that its process was so fail-safe that regulators exempted its facility from regular inspections.

But since 2005, Beef Products’ shipments have contained contaminated beef more than 50 times, 3 with E. coli and 48 with Salmonella. The company sells its beef to the national school lunch program and to fast food restaurants. It takes mostly the fatty trimmings of beef and processes it into a leaner product.

The USDA temporarily banned Beef Products beef from the school lunch program and when NYT staff confronted regulators with the information on the contaminations, officials said they would take the company off its inspection exemption list.