Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman defends USDA's meat safety inspection system and says Supreme Beef Processing, Inc., failed to meet the salmonella standard on three occasions. Supreme Beef tells REUTERS it will go back to court if USDA tries to shut down its slaughter plant. USDA has given Supreme until Jan. 3 to clean up the plant.

"While the vast majority of meat and poultry plants in the United States have had little trouble meeting our salmonella standard, Supreme Beef has failed to do so three times," says Glickman. Three sets of tests revealed "repeated, unacceptably high incidence (47%, 21% and 30%)" of salmonella in ground beef products, he adds.

USDA has halted all purchases of hamburger from Supreme Beef, a Texas meat processor, for the federal school lunch program. Supreme, however, contends that its products are safe and USDA's tests are unfair and arbitrary, REUTERS reports.

Supreme Beef won a federal court ruling that blocked USDA from punishing its Dallas ground beef processing plant for having high salmonella contamination in its products. The judge stopped USDA from withdrawing federal meat inspectors from the plant, a move that effectively would have shut the facility.

REUTERS also reports that USDA is considering an appeal of the case and has said it will not hesitate to take a similar action against Supreme's slaughter plant in Ladonia, TX, that failed a separate set of salmonella tests.