Spoiled, Putrid Pork Butts

Yet another reason to quit eating meat, from a U.S. Attorney's Office Press Release:

Court records reflected that Shamrock is a meat and poultry trader that buys salvaged, damaged and otherwise distressed product from insurance companies in salvage sale situations for subsequent resale. In May 1998, Shamrock purchased 162,000 pounds of product from Stoner and Company, Inc. The product was part of a salvage operation resulting from a refrigeration failure at Bruno's, Inc. of Birmingham, Alabama, a retail store distributorship. On May 14, 1998, Shamrock sold 660 cases (41,807 pounds) of pork butts to R.W. Zant, a Los Angeles, California distributor, via Lighthouse Trading, a Newton, Iowa meat broker. Two hundred cases were sent directly to R.W. Zant, while the other 460 cases were delivered to a Los Angeles cold storage warehouse. Soon after its receipt of the 200 cases, R.W. Zant and Lighthouse notified Shamrock of complaints that the pork butts were spoiled and had a sour odor. Though Shamrock had been notified of this spoilage, it caused the other 460 cases to be delivered to Professional Food Systems, an El Paso, Texas retail store distributor. Professional Food Systems, in turn, sold some of the 60 cases of spoiled, putrid pork butts to New Mexico retail stores prior to learning the meat was adulterated. Importantly, the adulterated pork butts were recovered before they were sold to retail customers.