Wedding guest finds needle in contaminated shish kebab

August 10, 2004, Times Colonist (Victoria), page B1 / Front, Gerard Young

Saanich resident Helen Baron was cited as discovering a broken needle when she began chewing a shish kebab at a friend's wedding reception, adding, "It grossed me out pretty bad."

The story says that the broken needle escaped detection at the ranch, the packing plant and Langford's Costco Wholesale store and that needles are routinely used to inject cattle with antibiotics.

The steak would have passed through a metal detector at Lakeside Packers in Brooks, Alta., before being shipped to the wholesale chain.

The story explains that on May 13, Baron, 36, bought enough beef from Costco for 30 to 40 wedding guests and she and others prepared the beef on skewers for the barbecued shish kebabs served at the wedding two days later.

At the wedding where she was the last to eat, she was the only guest who got a piece of metal. The one-inch needle fragment didn't damage her teeth or gums but gave her a start.

Baron was further cited as saying that despite a conference call with representatives from Costco and Lakeside Packers and an inquiry from Costco's insurer, she has yet to get a refund or an apology, adding, "I'd love to be able to eat beef again but all I can see is this little calf."

Dr. Joyce Van Donkersgoed, a Lacombe, Alta, veterinarian who works on beef safety, was cited as saying that metal detectors are set up to monitor specific sizes or cuts of meat, however, on occasion when a box contains different-sized cuts, the machine will not pick up everything because it is set to scan a specific mass, adding, "It rarely happens but when it does, it is bad news."

Van Donkersgoed also noted that two pieces of pork exported to Japan were found to contain broken needles within the last six months. Ranchers or vets sometimes break needles when they do routine injections of cattle, she said.

The Alberta Beef On-Farm Food Safety program has tried over the last decade to educate ranchers and vets on how to avoid breaking needles, she said. The safest way to inject cattle is not in the backside, as traditionally done, but in the neck under the skin and not in the muscle. Bent, burred or dull needles should also be discarded.

Van Donkersgoed was further cited as saying there are problems with enforcement. For instance, new hydraulic chutes where cattle pass in a narrow, directed space allow injections to be given in the neck but the equipment is expensive.

The older-style chutes, still commonly found on ranches, generally only allow for injection in the cow's hind quarters because there are no side gates. Injuries can result from handlers trying to climb into the chute to inject an animal in the neck, Van Donkersgoed said.

Records of needle breaks are supposed to be kept and passed on to the next buyer, whether another rancher or a packing plant, so they know to look for the metal.

Statistics on how many such incidents occur annually in Canada are not available, Van Donkersgoed said, though one survey found only about 30 per cent of needles were discovered by consumers, the rest were caught by suppliers and retailers before sale. The survey also found about six of 10 processors and retailers had no complaints of broken needles. However, fewer than one in five of those surveyed in 1999 responded.