Sunday, November 04, 2007

US tightens restrictions on meat imports


This is about bad food. No, not McDonalds, Wendy's, Burger King. Although you might want to skip eating at those places for the next few days.
U.S. regulators have tightened restrictions on meat and poultry products from Canada [Wyalusing, PA] because of concerns about testing practices at a Canadian [US] firm that was the likely source of bacteria-contaminated meat that sickened 40 people in eight states.

E. coli bacteria is the culprit behind another ground beef recall of over 1 million pounds by agribusiness Cargill. The beef was produced from Oct. 8th and Oct. 1st at their plant in Wyalusing, Pa.

The recall included 10 states: Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. A Cargill spokeswoman said they were working closely with the FDA to track and remove the beef.

Eight states? Those Canadian pikers. Cargill hit 10 states and they've done it before.

It raises the question: Who is ultimately responsible for protecting a country's people from contaminated food?

My contention is its up to the FDA in the US to ensure food plants aren't contaminating anything along with due diligence by the plants. Imported food from outside the US is also the FDA's responsibility. Yes this does take a lot of inspectors, but if the food supply isn't important, what is "homeland security"?

BTW: While I have you here. I couldn't go without the occasional burger and fries and certainly not without the periodic pizza. Did I mention bacon? Mmmm. The idea is to infrequently eat such things and you're fine. Well, its my opinion anyway. I'm no fucking nutritionist.

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