Meatpacking Executives Plead Guilty to Selling Adulterated Beef

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that two executives of a meatpacking plant pleaded guilty to selling 775,000 pounds of adulterated meat—”including whole cow hearts labeled as ‘ground beef'”— for more than $1 million to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The executives’ company, West Texas Provisions, falsely marketed its products as inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to DOJ; the company allegedly “kept the whole hearts offsite until inspectors left the premises, then processed the hearts on nights and weekends, when inspectors weren’t working,” and “[t]hey often kept the lights off inside the facility while processing the uninspected meat, hid uninspected meat in the freezer while inspectors were in the building, and distracted inspectors from looking at the product.” The defendants face up to five years in prison.