USDA Delays Recall for 18 Days

According to an internal U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) e-mail obtained by the Chicago Tribune, the USDA waited 18 days after confirming that a Florida teenager had become sick from E. coli-contaminated meat before recommending a recall of the contaminated beef.

Under U.S. law, the USDA is only empowered to recommend product recalls and cannot force them. On Sept. 25 of last year, the day it received the USDA recommendation, Topps Meat recalled 331,000 pounds of frozen hamburger patties. On Sept. 29, Topps expanded this to 21.7 million pounds, or one year's worth of production.

Responding to the allegation that the USDA waited too long to recommend a recall, Undersecretary of Agriculture for Food Safety Richard Raymond admitted that "this agency is not completely satisfied with the time elapsed and the issuance of the recall. We will be reviewing data related to this recall as well as our own protocol to determine how we might improve."

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