| Type | meat processing |
|---|---|
| Industry | Meat packing |
| Founded | Denison, Iowa, 1960 |
| Headquarters | Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, USA |
IBP, Inc., formerly known as Iowa Beef Processors, Inc., now Tyson Fresh Meats, is now an American meat packing company based in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, USA. IBP was the United States' biggest beef packer and its number two pork processor until it was acquired by Tyson Foods in 2001 for US$3.2 billion in cash and stock. To reflect the company's multiple operations, the company changed its name to Iowa Beef Processors, Inc. in 1970. After the company expanded operations to pork and other areas, Iowa Beef Processors, Inc., became IBP, Inc.
In 1967, IBP introduced boxed beef and pork, which were vacuum packed and in smaller portions. It was a new option then, when the traditional method of shipping product was in whole carcass form. The boxed meat also saved energy and transportation costs by eliminating the shipment of fat, bones and trimmings.
→"A $24-billion operation, Tyson supplies about 25 billion pounds of chicken, beef, and pork per year to McDonald's, Wal-Mart, and most major supermarket and restaurant chains in the United States."
→1996: "In February 1996, the company agreed to pay Alaska up to $5.85 million over ten years to settle allegations of illegal fishing off the Alaska Peninsula in the early 1990s, a legal problem Tyson assumed when it purchased Arctic Alaska Fisheries Corp. in 1992. Later in 1996, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Donald Tyson of tipping off a friend, who then made a quick profit in the stock of Arctic Alaska Fisheries while the sale of the seafood company to Tyson was pending. Tyson quickly agreed to pay a civil penalty of $46,125."
→2001: "The year for Tyson ended on a negative note, however, as the company faced serious allegations of illegal hiring practices, brought on by a two-and-a-half-year investigation by the Department of Justice. Tyson and several employees were indicted for conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants across the United States-Mexico border and put them to work with false documentation. Tyson was investigated for financial gains derived from the alleged offense, which was estimated to be in excess of $100 million."
→2005: "In September 2005, thirteen African American workers at a Tyson Foods poultry plant in Ashland, Alabama, filed a discrimination lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit brought allegations of discrimination over several years, including a "Whites only" sign on a bathroom door and the use of racial slurs and other racist comments. Workers who complained about the disparate treatment were summarily suspended or suffered disciplinary actions by the management. Tyson Foods later paid $871,000 to resolve the claims of the group of plaintiffs who filed the discrimination lawsuit."
→2007: "The company issued a recall of 40,000 pounds of beef in 12 states. The recalled meat was sold at Wal-Mart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. The company decided to take this action after samples tested at its Texas plant revealed E. coli O157:H7 contamination. This form of E. coli is a potentially deadly bacterium that causes bloody diarrhea and dehydration, and possibly death. Young children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems face the most danger from E. coli." [1]
→2007-2008: "In 2007, Tyson began labeling and advertising its chicken products as "Raised without Antibiotics." After being advised by the USDA that Tyson’s use of bacteria-killing ionophores in unhatched eggs constituted antibiotic use, Tyson and the USDA compromised on rewording Tyson’s slogan as "raised without antibiotics that impact antibiotic resistance in humans." Tyson competitors Purdue Farms and Sanderson Farms sued, claiming that Tyson’s claim violated truth-in-advertising/labeling standards. In May 2008, a federal judge ordered Tyson to stop using the label.
In June 2008, USDA inspectors discovered that Tyson had also been using gentamicin, an antibiotic, in eggs. USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety Richard Raymond claimed that the company hid the use of this antibiotic from federal inspectors, claiming that the use of this chemical is standard industry practice. Tyson agreed to voluntarily remove its “raised without antibiotics” label in future packaging and advertising."[2]