Meat Industry News for April 13, 2007

RESTAURANT REPORT
Smith & Wollensky Takes It in the Chops
New York Observer
Chris Shott
April 16, 2007
How's the shampoo?" asked Patrick, the chatty, bespectacled 54-year-old bartender at Wollensky's Grill on East 49th Street.

He meant the champagne, two big flute fills that he'd just served up to a smartly dressed middle-aged couple snacking on a plate of French fries at the bar.

"It sucked," answered the male of the duo, who promptly requested a glass of Pinot Gris instead.

The rather crude talk and mere pub fare might not exactly reflect the intended high-end image of such a traditionally refined outfit as the Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group.
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PET FOOD
FDA's Response to Tainted Pet Food Assailed
Senators Say Better Reporting, Inspections Needed
Washington Post
April 13, 2007
A Senate panel took the Food and Drug Administration to task yesterday for its "inexcusable" response to pet food contamination and a month's worth of expanding recalls that have left Americans fearful about what to feed their cats and dogs.

The Appropriations subcommittee, with a special appearance by the dean of the Senate, pressed the agency for better and faster reporting about tainted food and better and more-frequent inspections of pet food factories.

"This is inexcusable," Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said after a two-hour hearing in which an FDA official said he couldn't be sure that all the adulterated pet food has been recalled and is off store shelves. "The FDA's response to this situation has been wholly inadequate."
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PRESS RELEASE: PET FOOD
Pet Defenders Applauds Congressional Hearing, Demands Further Action
Blasts pet food industry for suggesting self-regulation
WASHINGTON, April 12, 2007
Pet Defenders, the political action committee representing pet owners nationwide, called today's Senate oversight hearing into the national pet food recall a good first step towards regulating the pet food industry, but blasted the response of the pet food industry's public relations machine as uncaring and reckless.

While the Senate oversight hearing today to examine the recent pet food recall is a victory for pet owners nationwide, the Pet Food Institute, an industry group that represents the nation's pet food manufacturing companies, called any proposal for deeper federal regulations of the industry "presumptuous."

"The industry has been operating under its own set of self-imposed regulations, and that is precisely what led to the terrible contamination of pet food that has killed possibly thousands of our pets. It's preposterous that the industry continues to say that this is sufficient and continues to fight increased government regulation. The pet food industry remains reckless and more interested in profits than our pets," said Pet Defenders President Marty Stone. "Many pet owners believe that there is criminal neglect here and it is up to the government to investigate not a 'PR-firm created government- industry partnership,' the National Pet Food Commission."

Stone said more federal oversight of the pet food industry is necessary in the wake of the pet food recall. Recent reports indicate that FDA had never inspected the plants where contaminated pet food originated. Cases of kidney failure in pets have increased by 30% since the tainted food hit the shelves in early March.

Pet Defenders is also collecting testimonials from pet owners about sick pets and plans to deliver these stories to pet food executives and members of Congress.

"Pet owners who have lost their pets due to contaminated food deserve more than rhetoric on why the FDA failed to properly regulate the pet food industry," said Stone. "They deserve justice. That's why we're taking this issue directly to elected officials and industry leaders."
Founded in 2004, Pet Defenders is committed to candidates who support pet- friendly legislation at the local, state and federal level. Pet Defenders provides a voice in the political process to pet owners and their pets.
CONTACT: Marty Stone of Pet Defenders, +1-202-262-5362
info@petdefenders.org


PRESS RELEASE: RESTAURANT REPORT
OSI Restaurant Partners, Inc. Announces Appointment of Jeff Smith as President of Outback Steakhouse
Steve Erickson Named as Senior Vice President of Operations for Outback Steakhouse
April 12, 2007
Paul Avery, chief operating officer of OSI Restaurant Partners, Inc. (OSI), has announced the appointment of Jeff Smith as president of the Outback Steakhouse brand. He also announced that Steve Erickson has been promoted to senior vice president of national operations for the brand.
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INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
S. Korea reiterates 'no renegotiation' in free trade deal with U.S.
Yonhap (Korea) News
April 13, 2007
South Korea will not renegotiate with the United States on the just-concluded free trade agreement despite news reports that Washington may ask Seoul to add or modify some labor provisions in the deal, the chief South Korean negotiator reiterated Friday.
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INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
Johanns Warns That South Korea Is Endangering Free-Trade Deal
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told farm economists that South Korea's refusal to normalize beef trade with the United States will imperil a free-trade agreement between the two countries. "The problem is going to need to be solved," he said.

Otherwise, he suggested, a U.S. trade deal with Korea will be dead on arrival. Johanns also indicated that Korea is in violation of standards promulgated by the World Organization for Animal Health, which has recommended that the United States be classified as a "controlled risk" region for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

"We think we will have classification from the OIE by mid-May. That's an important catalyst for Korea, but I also think it's a very important catalyst for Japan," Johanns said.
John Gregerson on 4/13/2007 for Meatingplace.com


HUMAN RESOURCES
Workers at meatpacking towns preparing for possible raids
The Associated Press
April 13, 2007
DODGE CITY, Kan. - Frightened by raids last year at six Swift & Co. plants, illegal immigrants in the nation's meatpacking towns are preparing for their possible arrest.

For years, immigrant rights groups had been confident the meatpacking giants were so powerful immigration agents would never raid them.
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RESTAURANT REPORT
Burger king: The man behind Ottawa's hit hamburger chain, The Works
Ottawa Citizen
April 13, 2007
A funny thing happened on the way to the 2007 Ottawa Restaurateur of the Year awards: Ion Aimers got himself nominated. Twice.

It’s funny because Restaurateur of the Year — which will be announced at a gala dinner on Tuesday — is typically bestowed upon someone like, say, Stephen Beckta, New York-trained owner and sommelier of the eponymous Beckta Dining and Wine, the hautest of Ottawa’s haute cuisine.

Beckta is, in fact, nominated this year too along with Aimers, who is anything but haute: a bearded, jean-clad man-child whose defining feature is a set of twinkling eyes bracketed by deeply etched laugh lines.
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China's Food Safety Woes Expand Overseas
April 13, 2007
Associated Press
SHANGHAI, China
The list of Chinese food exports rejected at American ports reads like a chef's nightmare: pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella.

Yet, it took a much more obscure item, contaminated wheat gluten, to focus U.S. public attention on a very real and frightening fact: China's chronic food safety woes are now an international concern.
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