Owner:

The Newport Beach resident who runs a slaughterhouse that recalled 143 million pounds of beef admitted Wednesday before Congress that his company processed sick cattle as food.

Steve Mendell, the owner of the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino, initially told a congressional panel that the sick cows had been euthanized rather than converted into ground beef. After a screening of an undercover videotape taken by the Humane Society of the United States, however, Mendell retracted his comments.

When asked why he had changed his statements, Mendell replied, “I had not seen what I saw here today,” according to several news reports.

The Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. put a hold on ground beef earlier this year when videotape emerged that allegedly showed slaughterhouse workers using inhumane practices on sick cattle and sending them to be processed as meat. The beef recall was the largest in U.S. history.

Among those affected by the tainted beef was the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, which bought from Westland/Hallmark and temporarily took the meat off its school menus after the videotape emerged. A number of Newport-Mesa wholesalers and restaurants also appeared on a state list of retailers that may have purchased beef from the slaughterhouse; many of the businesses’ owners called the list inaccurate.

Gerry Ross, the vice president of the Pueblo Trading Co. in Newport Beach, stressed after Mendell’s testimony Wednesday that his wholesaler had only a marginal — and year-old — connection with the slaughterhouse.

“We bought some burritos from a company that did business with him, so I had no way of knowing,” Ross said. “It wouldn’t be normal for me to ask, ‘By the way, where do you get the ground beef for these burritos?’”

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.