Wal-Mart Stores beefs up food safety

BENTONVILLE, Ark. Wal-Mart Stores announced that it will implement additional beef safety measures at its Walmart U.S. and Sam's Club stores.

The new program requires Walmart and Sam's Club beef suppliers to implement controls that would significantly reduce potential contamination levels and validate that the measures they've implemented are effective through specialized testing.

Suppliers who do not operate slaughter houses must be in compliance with the new standard by June 2011.  For beef slaughterhouse suppliers, there is a two-step approach with the first step to be completed by June 2011 and the second by June 2012, the company reported.

"At Walmart and Sam's Club, our commitment to providing our customers with safe, quality foods is unparalleled," said Wal-Mart Stores VP food safety Frank Yiannas. "As part of our continuous improvement efforts, we go further than many U.S. retailers in requiring leading-edge food safety standards throughout the entire food production chain."