Employees caught on surveillance tape reportedly marked contaminated meat as fit for consumption prior to a raid and January recall at Rancho Feeding Corp.'s plant in Petaluma, Calif.
According to CNN, United States Department of Agriculture inspectors obtained Rancho's records, then found the company's beef products were reportedly made from cancerous cows. Workers then slaughtered the livestock, and hid the sick parts of the meat to cover up evidence when inspectors came around.
Plant workers also reportedly fabricated stamps of approvals and substituted cow heads with healthy ones.
Inspectors received a tip from a former company employee.
The lawyer for the plant's former owner, Jesse Amaral, told CNN errors were made.
"There were opportunities for cows to have gone through the process without proper inspection or otherwise properly being handled," Jeffrey Bornstein said.
Amaral said an inspector and plant foreman's involvement in the situation were not associated with the case.
However, Bornstein told CNN there were discrepancies.
"He takes responsibility for mistakes in judgment that were made. He made mistakes in judgment," Bornstein said. "He regrets not being better able to recognize, respond and stop some of these alleged bad practices earlier. He's extremely remorseful."
U.S. Rep (D) Jared Huffman told CNN he thinks there are more details about the case.
"One would speculate at this point that in order for there [to] have been a deception that allowed a whole bunch of improperly processed meat to get certified for sale, someone at USDA was deceived," Huffman said. "Something must have broken down in their process too. So, in the absence of information, I am left to believe that maybe they're a little concerned that they dropped the ball, too."
Amaral sold the plant following the recall.
According to Food Safety News, the pull back involved 8.7 million pounds of meat.
Other companies also received leftover carcasses from the contaminated meat, some of the which was put into frozen meals.
Following further examination, United States Federal Safety and Inspection Service officials found over 5,800 stores selling the products in 45 states including Washington, D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico.
171 other companies also received products with the meat. These included 7-11, Albertsons, Family Dollar, Kroger, Piggly-Wiggly, and Walgreens.
