The Largest Beef Recall In US History Led To Criminal Convictions

From Chinese takeout-style honey garlic crispy beef to steak, the United States is big on beef. According to Statista, in 2021 alone, Americans consumed a whopping 30 billion pounds of beef. The public purchase the vast majority of their beef at the grocery store and, thanks to an array of checks and guarantees, trust that what they're buying is safe. However, the largest beef recall in U.S. history not only broke this trust but led to criminal convictions for those responsible.

In 2008, the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., which was based in Chino, California, made headline news when the United States Department of Agriculture deemed that 143 million pounds of the company's beef had to be disposed of. (This huge amount is only slightly less than the total amount of frozen chicken products recalled by Perdue during 2024.) The mass recall was the result of the inhumane treatment animals experienced at the company's slaughterhouse. The company was exposed by the Humane Society of the United States which ran an undercover operation, obtaining video evidence of what went on behind closed doors. Upon the release of the footage, Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. had to face the consequences.

The president of Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., Steve Mendell, stood before Congress to watch the footage in March 2008. In April that same year, the USDA notified the meat company that it was responsible for a $67.2 million dollar portion of the recall cost. What's more, two Hallmark/Westland employees, supervisor Daniel Agarte Navarro and slaughterhouse worker Luis Sanchez were charged with animal cruelty offences. They both plead guilty. A $155.7 million judgment was also leveled against the company for animal abuse.

The Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. recall applied to all meat from the slaughterhouse dating back to February 2006. The length of the recall period, and the fact that the company was a part of the National School Lunch Program, meant that much of the beef involved in the recall had already been consumed. Roughly 37 million pounds of it had been sent to schools, suggesting that school lunches aren't that much better than they used to be.

The video released by the Humane Society of the United States was taken in 2007 and showed Hallmark/Westland workers using disturbing methods to get cows to walk when they didn't have the strength to. They hit the downed animals, sprayed them with water using a hose, and pushed them using a forklift. Aside from revealing this cruelty, the video raised suspicions that the cows were very unwell and thus should never have been in line to become food. (Cows must be able to stand and walk in order to be considered safe for consumption.) This was the main reason why so much beef was recalled after the Humane Society's video was released.