Where's the recalled beef? Everywhere

A single purchaser of recalled beef resold it to about 2,500 other vendors, California health officials said this week.That one example hints at how far the beef at the center of last week's recall has traveled through the food supply.Jeff Farrar, chief of the food and drug branch of the state Department of Public Health, said his staff is just about done contacting 150 wholesalers and distributors who bought recalled beef directly from a Southern California slaughterhouse. Those 150 are expected to lead to tier after tier of others, mushrooming into a list of restaurants, markets and retail products."The recall is going to grow significantly," Farrar told the state Senate's Select Committee on Food-borne Illness.Already, the state has updated information it is giving to local health officials three times since Friday.The latest list went out Monday afternoon and included more than 2,600 establishments, mostly Southern California restaurants and markets, that had carried recalled beef. They ranged from Hooters of Santa Monica to Los Angeles County Fire Department camps. Among the resellers were hundreds of restaurants whose cuisine spanned the globe from Thai to Greek, and pizza to tacos.In an interview, Craig Henry, a senior vice president with the Grocery Manufacturers Association, said it could take up to two months before the full scope of the recall is known.Tracking recalled beef is expected to take so long because some of it could have changed hands as many as six or seven times before it finally reached a store or restaurant, Farrar said.While much of the beef went into school lunches, or to restaurants and supermarkets that quickly sold it, it is unclear how much might have made its way into soups, sauces or other products still on store shelves.Two years of production from the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. -- 143 million pounds of beef -- was recalled Feb. 17 after an undercover Humane Society worker filmed slaughterhouse workers prodding fallen cows to slaughter by spraying water, and shoving and pulling them.Federal rules forbid processing meat from "downer" cows unless a vet specifically approves, because cows unable to stand are more likely to be suffering from bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. People who eat beef from infected cattle can develop a rare, lethal brain disorder years later.State and local health officials have stressed that they consider this a low risk recall, because other protections against mad cow disease remained in place and chances of anyone contracting it are remote.Still, the recall is so huge that it's "a great drill for the state" in trying to enforce a new law that requires disclosure of where recalled beef went, said Dr. Anthony Iton, Alameda County's public health director, who helped lobby for the law.(Contact Carrie Peyton Dahlberg at cpeytondahlberg(at)sacbee.com)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)