Day 241 - 26 Apr 96 - Page 37


     
     1
     2        "Thus, in my 1980 report, I was able to determine, based on
     3        interviews, which companies admitted that they used some
     4        beef imported from tropical Latin American nations in their
     5        products.  Among those verifying such use in 1979-80 were
     6        Burger King and Jack-in-the-Box.  (A few years later, when
     7        concerned citizens and groups effected boycotts of these
     8        two companies, the companies first issued denials and
     9        threatened legal action, but when faced with the sources of
    10        the information, which came from within each company, said
    11        they would discontinue using beef imported from Latin
    12        America.)
    13
    14        "Some companies said that they used imported beef, but were
    15        unable to be specific about the countries of origin.
    16        (Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the European Economic
    17        Community are among those countries exporting beef to the
    18        US.)  For those US-based companies stating that they use no
    19        imported beef whatsoever, I interviewed, whenever,
    20        possible, US government meat inspectors that were stationed
    21        in meat manufacturing plants that supplied the companies in
    22        question.
    23
    24        "A problem arises with the question of whether a company is
    25        using imported beef because under US law, once imported
    26        beef is cleared by the authorities, it loses its imported
    27        identity and gains the status of US graded beef.  Thus, if
    28        the meat is purchased by a broker for resale, the next or
    29        final buyer only knows the US grade of the product and not
    30        necessarily the country of origin.  (Manufacturers directly
    31        purchasing meat from abroad, of course, are aware of the
    32        country of origin.)  Efforts by some US environmentalists
    33        to have Congress enact a labelling law designating a beef's
    34        country of origin have been unsuccessful to date.
    35
    36        "In the case of McDonald's Corporation, the Company has
    37        long maintained that their US franchises do not use any
    38        imported beef.  (McDonald's has said that their franchises
    39        operating in tropical Latin American countries, such as
    40        Guatemala and Panama, do use beef from the countries in
    41        which they are located.)  A spokesperson for McDonald's
    42        National Purchasing and Quality Assurance Department,
    43        responding to the suggestion that the Company may
    44        unknowingly be using some imported beef, said:  'McDonald's
    45        Corporation itself does not buy or sell any of the products
    46        used in McDonald's franchises'.
    47
    48        "An officers of the Equity Meat Corporation, which in the
    49        early 1980s supplied almost half of McDonald's beef in the
    50        US, responded to the question of whether some imported meat 
    51        may be used unwittingly in McDonald's hamburgers by saying, 
    52        'It would be difficult for imported beef mixed with US 
    53        trimmings to be sold to a cautious manufacturer like
    54        Equity'.
    55
    56        "A US Department of Agriculture meat inspector who was
    57        stationed at Equity's facility near Philadelphia,
    58        Pennsylvania, in the late 1970s, told me that imported beef
    59        from Australia and New Zealand - 'not much from elsewhere'
    60         - was used in the preparation of ground beef for

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