Beef recall affects other products

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- The recall of beef sold by a California company is snowballing into what could become the largest food recall in U.S. history.

The Grocery Manufacturers of America say companies that purchased beef from Westland/Hallmark Meat of Chino, Calif., are destroying all the products they used the recalled beef in, USA Today reported Monday.

Everything from soups and sauces to burritos and bouillon cubes are being dumped in what one senior official of the Grocery Manufacturers of America said could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

"It's going to be very, very sizable," Craig Henry, the group's senior vice president, told USA Today.

While there is no evidence of contamination, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has instructed that products containing even tiny amounts of Westland beef be recalled.

William Marler, a leading plaintiff's attorney in E. coli cases, says given the low risk, destroying so much food "is just an enormous waste of resources."

"Recalls should be reserved for products that put the public at risk and this isn't it," Marler told USA Today.