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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Bureau of Prisons lacks policies to safeguard against serving potentially contaminated food to its inmates, a problem that led it to buy substandard products including whole cow hearts disguised as ground beef, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog has found.

In a new report made public on Tuesday, Inspector General Michael Horowitz faulted the BOP for not having “a protocol in place to ensure its food supply is safe” and failing to “properly document or communicate food vendor quality issues.”

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As evidence of the problem, Horowitz pointed to multiple criminal cases filed against food vendors since 2014.

One case in 2018 involved a food vendor who was accused of selling adulterated spices that were diluted with undeclared filler ingredients to the federal prison system.

Another case from last year involved two individuals who pleaded guilty to charges they had sold the BOP $1 million worth of adulterated meat, including whole cow hearts that were labeled as “ground beef.”