United States-The world largest meat recall.

UNITED STATES-MORE ON WORLDS LARGEST MEAT RECALL.

The Department of Justice said Friday it is suing Hallmark/Westland Meat Co. for transgressions that led to the largest beef recall in U.S. history early last year.

The agency is intervening in a lawsuit filed at the time by the Humane Society of the United States and seeking $150 million in taxpayer money paid to the Chino, Calif.-based company over a five-year period, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The complaint alleges Hallmark, once the second largest supplier to the National School Lunch Program, fraudulently represented that all cattle slaughtered at the facility were humanely handled and that no meat from nonambulatory animals entered the food supply.

Hallmark issued a recall of 143 million pounds of beef in February 2008 after HSUS released videotape footage showing company workers abusing nonambulatory cows in an apparent effort to force them to slaughter.

HSUS filed the suit the same month. By law, the suit was kept under seal until the government completed its own investigation and intervened last week.