WASHINGTON – T. Piekutowski European Style Sausage of St. Louis, Mo., is recalling about 750 pounds of sausage products that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the Food Safety and Inspection Service said Thursday.

Various sizes of Krakow sausage wrapped in unmarked butcher paper with no label is being recalled. The products were custom wrapped at the establishment's retail operation. Packages do not bear the establishment number or USDA mark of inspection.

The sausage products were produced on Dec. 18, 2008, and sold at the establishment's retail counter in the St. Louis. Consumers may have purchased these sausage products on Dec. 18 and 19, 2008.

The problem was discovered through FSIS routine microbiological testing. The agency said it has received no reports of illnesses associated with consumption of this product.

Source: Food Safety and Inspection Service

WASHINGTON – The American Meat Institute (AMI) on Wednesday filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit against a California law banning any species of non-ambulatory livestock at federally-inspected meat packing plants.

The original lawsuit was reportedly brought Tuesday by the National Meat Association (NMA) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. NMA’s lawsuit focuses on the state law’s application to hogs. In its motion to intervene, AMI is seeking injunctive and declaratory relief more broadly, arguing that the state law is preempted by the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) when applied to other livestock processed in a federal meat plant.

“AMI is seeking to intervene in order to assert the longstanding view shared by both the Institute and (U.S. Department of Agriculture) that federal preemption over state laws applies to all products produced at federally inspected plants,” AMI President J. Patrick Boyle said. “It is essential that the expert judgment of veterinarians in evaluating the health of livestock be maintained.”

In its motion to intervene, AMI argued that the new state law, which becomes effective Jan. 1, 2009, imposes requirements that are different than and in addition to the FMIA requirements imposed by USDA in federally inspected establishments.   

Source: American Meat Institute

SEOUL – A South Korean court on Friday ruled that a legal notice issued to allow the reimportation of U.S. beef did not violate the country’s constitution.

South Korea’s opposition party and citizens had petitioned the Constitutional Court to try to block the beef from entering the country by saying the notice violated people’s constitutional rights.

The nine-member court rejected the petition, saying that measures in the legal notice intended to protect consumer safety could not be ruled insufficient.

The government issued the notice in late June as the final administrative step required to allow shipments to resume despite weeks of violent protests by South Koreans concerned about the health risks of eating U.S. meat.

In November, South Korea's supermarket chains resumed selling American beef from cattle younger than 30 months, believed less susceptible to mad cow disease.

Source: Associated Press