USDA: Hawai'i beef safe

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i's beef lovers can eat without fear: Federal meat inspectors yesterday changed their mind and now say that none of the beef recalled because of mad cow disease was ever sent to the Islands.

"None of the recalled meat was shipped to Hawai'i," said Daniel Puzo, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

On Monday, the inspection service said that Hawai'i, along with seven other states and Guam, had received part of a 10,000-pound shipment of beef that had been recalled.

But yesterday, after further review of shipping records, it was discovered that Hawai'i and Guam had not received any of the meat, Puzo said.

The earlier confusion resulted as inspectors reviewed a list of distributors that received meat products from Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. in Moses Lake, Wash., where the infected cow was slaughtered along with 19 others Dec. 9.

"When we released that information, one or more of them listed Hawai'i as a distribution point," Puzo said. "We had to investigate whether it had indeed gone to Hawai'i. We were trying to be as cautious as possible. The same thing happened with Guam."

Inspectors have been at the Moses Lake slaughterhouse for several days reviewing customer lists, said Matt Baun, another spokesman for the inspection service. In the past 24 hours, they were able to eliminate some customers.

"Today we can say for sure that none of the product went to Hawai'i," Baun said yesterday.

Most of the meat — about 80 percent — was sent to Washington and Oregon.

"We are making sure the product is either being held or sent back to the point of purchase," Baun said.

Major Hawai'i markets have stressed all week that they did not buy or sell the recalled beef.

Hawai'i grocery chains including Safeway, Times Super Market, Star Markets, Foodland, Sack N Save and KTA Super Stores all reported that they were certain they did not receive the beef.

Mad cow disease, officially known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, causes humans who eat brain or spinal matter from an infected cow to develop variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which eats holes in the brain, leading to neuromuscular deterioration and death.

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.