By Mary Ann Lopez
Herald Staff Writer

Ben Simpson takes a bite of a hamburger at Olde Tymer's Cafe on Main Avenue in Durango on Saturday. Local restaurant owners say the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States has not hurt local sales of steaks and hamburgers.

If Durango diners are reluctant to eat beef, you wouldn't know it. Managers, cooks and owners of several eateries and stores say beef is still a top pick with customers.

Since the discovery of mad cow disease in late December, beef prices have dropped and some consumers have expressed concern about eating beef. But Durango beef eaters aren't changing their eating habits - at least not yet.

Beef from the cow identified with bovine spongiform encephalopathy - mad cow disease - was shipped to eight states and a few U.S. territories, but Colorado did not receive any of the meat.

Aaron Seitz, a manager and co-owner at Carver Brewing Co. at 1022 Main Ave., said his customers' eating habits are the same as usual.

"I hear about it on the radio and in the papers, but I haven't noticed a change," Seitz said.

The restaurant has served up the usual burgers and steaks. Whether that changes over time will be interesting to watch, he said.

Monday night is burger night at Olde Tymer's Cafe, and the mad cow discovery couldn't keep thrifty meat eaters from feasting on the restaurant's discounted burgers.

Jon Park, general manager at Olde Tymer's, 1000 Main Ave., said beef is still big business. The restaurant added a chicken sandwich to its burger night menu to compete with other restaurants that offer burger nights, but beef still beats out chicken.

Janet Gordon, of Albuquerque, was eating a burger with her family at Olde Tymer's on Friday afternoon. Gordon said she and her children will continue eating meat; her husband does not eat meat. "I'm not changing a thing," Gordon said.

Eating breakfast Friday morning at the Durango Diner, 957 Main Ave., Paul Johnson and Joe Stewart, both of Durango, said they aren't going to change their eating habits, either.

"Dang yeah, I'm still eating meat," Johnson said. "Why wouldn't I?"

Stewart agreed, and said he has no worries about eating beef.

Durango Diner owner Gary Broad said he hasn't noticed any change among his customers' feasting fancies.

And steak is still a staple at the Ore House, 147 College Drive. Scott Thompson, Ore House chef, said business increased over the holiday season, and "it hasn't slowed us down a bit." Steak's popularity has remained unscathed by the sick bovine from Washington.

Top sirloin and ribeye steaks are also top choices for patrons at Seasons Grill, 764 Main Ave., said owner Karen Barger. "We haven't noticed any changes yet."

Seasons' menu changes four times a year, and two or three beef items are always on the menu, she said. "We are very picky and use very reputable purveyors to get all of our food."

The No. 1 item ordered at Seasons is the top sirloin of beef, she said, with ribeye coming in a close second.

Managers at local grocery chains City Market and Albertsons refused to comment on the effect of mad cow on sales. But Rhonda Toland, a spokeswoman for City Market in Grand Junction, said the chain has not seen changes in the meat buying behavior of its shoppers in Colorado. Shoppers have not been calling with questions or concerns, either.

Toland believes that because most shoppers are aware that Colorado was not affected, they have little reason for concern.

A spokeswoman for Albertsons, Karianne Cole, said in a telephone interview from the chain's Boise headquarters, that Albertsons is still analyzing trends among beef sales at its stores.

For Holly Zink, who owns Sunnyside Farms Market, 1135 Camino del Rio, business may even get better. Offering consumers beef that is natural and steroid- and chemical-free has been one of the selling points at Sunnyside. As concern about mad cow grows among shoppers, Zink thinks a greater number of beef eaters may seek out her store.

"The big thing is that we are not processing sick animals to provide inexpensive meat," Zink said. "We are processing high-quality animals to provide high-quality meat."

Reach Staff Writer Mary Ann Lopez at maryann@durangoherald.com .

Local processor encourages buying locally grown beef

By Mary Ann Lopez
Herald Staff Writer

For locals who love their steak and potatoes but are worried about mad cow disease, a local meat processor said buying locally grown and processed beef may be a safer option.

Sandy Young, manager of Sunnyside Meats, south of Durango, looks at a tag on a cow carcass on Monday. At the Sunnyside plant only locally grown animals - animals from Southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico - are processed.

More information

Additional U.S. Department of Agriculture protection measures announced Tuesday: Downer animals: Effective immediately, USDA will ban all downer cattle from the human food chain. Product holding: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors will no longer mark cattle tested for BSE as "inspected and passed" until confirmation is received that the animal tested negative. Specified risk material: USDA will enhance its regulations by declaring as specified risk materials the skull, brain, eyes and spinal cord of cattle more than 30 months of age, prohibiting their use in the human food supply. Mechanically separated meat: USDA will prohibit use of mechanically separated meat in human food. For more information, visit the USDA Web site at http://www.usda.gov/

Jerry Zink owns Sunnyside Meats, a meat packing plant south of Durango. He said processing sick animals is not his business. At the Sunnyside plant only locally grown animals – animals from Southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico – are processed. From the minute the animals arrive at the plant to the minute they leave, they are tracked.

On Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced that a national animal identification system will be implemented.

Unlike large meat packing plants, meat from different animals is not commingled at Sunnyside. At larger plants, an animal may be slaughtered and then combined with another animal, creating what is called a "combo." Meat from several animals might be put into a combo.

Typically, five animals are processed per day at Sunnyside Meats, Zink said. Larger plants can process up to eight animals a minute, he said.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection office is located within the Sunnyside plant. A food inspector at the plant declined to comment, and said calls were being referred to the federal office in Washington, D.C.

When an animal arrives for slaughter, Zink said, the USDA inspector checks the animals over before they enter the building. The plant will not accept "downers," animals that cannot walk. Downers were banned nationwide after the discovery of the Washington state cow.

The animals are evaluated and if there are concerns about the health of a specific animal, it might not be allowed in the building or testing might be required to determine what factors are making it unhealthy, Zink said.

During the slaughtering process, inspectors also monitor the carcass and will resect areas on the animal, looking for pathogens or other signs that it might be unhealthy. If there are questions, the animals are retained until the inspectors are satisfied, Zink said. Otherwise, if the animal is found to be unfit, it is marked with dye and sent to a landfill.

He said all the surfaces that come into contact with an animal are washed between processing of individual animals. Knives are put through a sterilizer and anything that touches the meat is sanitized.

Any plant that processes meat for sale must have an inspector present, he said. Some plants do custom processing, where the owner of an animal takes the meat home and does not sell it. That can be done without inspectors present. Zink has some customers who request custom processing.

Zink said consumers should be concerned about the source of the meat they eat. "By buying local meat they can be assured that they know about the source of the animal," he said. "They can talk to the producer and stand eye-to-eye with them or see the ranch where the animals come from. That was the whole idea when I started this business."

Zink’s daughter, Holly Zink, said she has received several phone calls from concerned shoppers at her meat market, Sunnyside Farms Market. Her store has also had a slight increase in business.

Holly Zink sells beef that is either processed locally, at her father’s plant, or that is raised and processed in Colorado, she said. She buys beef from local ranchers and through a cattlemen’s cooperative in Colorado Springs. The meat she gets from the cooperative is processed in a small facility, similar to the one her father owns.

She said she explains to consumers that source verification is important, and people should know the source of the meat they purchase. But verifying whether cattle, later sold in grocery stores, were ever fed with feed containing animal proteins is almost impossible. In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the use of feed that might include meat from mammals.