Consumer Groups Angered by FDA and USDA Inaction on CO-treated Meat
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2, 2008
3:00 PM
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CONTACT: Consumer Groups
Tony Corbo (202) 683-2449
Chris Waldrop (202) 797-8551
Nancy Donley (773) 419-0128 |
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Consumer Groups Angered by FDA and USDA
Inaction on CO-treated Meat
Letters Urge HHS and USDA Secretaries to Stop Deception
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WASHINGTON, DC - June 2 - Declaring the government’s two-and-a-half year delay as
“inexcusable”, six of the nation’s leading consumer groups urged the Food and Drug
Administration and the Department of Agriculture to immediately ban the deceptive and
potentially unsafe use of carbon monoxide (CO) in case-ready meat packaging pending a
thorough legal and scientific review. No formal review, which is required by law for food
additives and substances that impart color to food’s appearance, has ever been conducted
on meat packaged with carbon monoxide.
The six groups – Food and Water Watch, the Consumer Federation of America, Safe
Tables Our Priority, Consumers Union, National Consumers League and the Government
Accountability Project – sent letters to Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike
Leavitt and Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer urging their departments’ agencies to act
to address the use of CO in meat packaging once and for all. The letters urged the
secretaries to not wait for Congress or a new Administration to do what should have
already been done by the agencies that report to them, the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
Carbon monoxide is used in meat packaging to color meat so it stays red indefinitely in
the package and looks fresher than it actually is. “This is such obvious deception,” said
Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food and Water Watch. “It is quite remarkable
that our government has allowed this blatant attempt to fool consumers to go on and on.”
Since a citizens’ petition calling for a ban on meat packaged with CO was filed with the
FDA on Nov. 15, 2006, neither agency has taken any action in the matter. The groups
decried the inaction by the FDA and FSIS, the federal agencies responsible for protecting
the food supply. The federal agencies have refused to act despite:
• Bans in other countries;
• Overwhelming evidence demonstrating the deceptive and potentially dangerous
qualities of meat packaged with CO;
• The fact that major retail chains across the country have acknowledged the
deception and removed the product from their shelves;
• Entreaties from consumer groups and Members of Congress;
• Numerous investigative reports by news media throughout the country; and,
• A national survey indicating overwhelming consumer opposition to coloring meat
with carbon monoxide.
“FDA and FSIS have been remiss in their duties to protect consumers,” said Chris
Waldrop, Director of the Food Policy Institute of the Consumer Federation of America.
“Adding carbon monoxide to fresh meat packaging turns the meat bright red indefinitely.
This is clearly deceptive because it makes the meat look fresher than it may actually be
and that is against the law.”
The groups were seriously disappointed by the failure of the agencies to remove the meat
from the market in the face of overwhelming evidence that coloring meat with CO is
deceptive and potentially harmful; that the practice is against existing law; that meat has
been shown to spoil well within the use-by dates; and, that the meat companies played
fast and loose with the science and the facts in order to sneak this process in under the
radar.
Given that there is no benefit to consumers and that the only perceivable attribute of
adding carbon monoxide to meat is to increase meat company profits at the expense of
consumer safety, the groups are asking Secretaries Leavitt and Schafer to take immediate
action and institute a ban to protect consumers pending the kind of review that fresh meat
products require.
The text of the letter can be found here.
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