Saturday, July 5, 2014

Foster Farms Recall - Get Big or Get Out

https://www.the-qrcode-generator.com/

Have you noticed how food poisoning announcements so often come from huge companies, but it is small companies the FDA runs out of business?

The U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture said it has found evidence directly linking Foster Farms boneless-skinless chicken breast to a case of Salmonella Heidelberg, an antibiotic-resistant strain of the disease that has sickened more than 500 people in the past 16 months and led to pressure from food safety advocates for federal action against the company.
There is no U.S. Depart of Food and Agriculture.  There is a USDA and an FDA.  Where do they get these reporters?  It might help to have someone on the beat who knows something about the topic.  Antibiotic resistant strains...  they so load these animals up Mother Nature is fighting back . We are in an absolutely crazy regime in which we subsidize out own famine.  All of these huge food conglomerates have massive subsidies, and put out harmful food.  And 500 people get sick.

The USDA said its investigators first learned of the salmonella case on June 23, and the recall was issued as soon as the direct link was confirmed. The location of the case and identity of the person were not released.
Foster Farms says the products have "use or freeze by" dates from March 21 to March 29 and have been distributed to California, Hawaii, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Oregon and Alaska.
500 people get sick "Use by" dates are off into the future, so they have known about this for a while.  With 500 sick, it is just a matter of time before someone dies.  How much of this chicken is left out there?  Well, probably near none,  No chicken, no refund.  All those people who ate the chicken either had a sound immune system of a good cook.  This is why without inspections the rest of the world does fine.  Cook the food properly, you'll be fine.  And if you cook properly, why do we need inspectors?
The federal Centers for Disease Control says 574 people from 27 states and Puerto Rico have been sickened since the outbreak began in 2013, leading to increasing pressure from food safety advocates for a recall or even an outright shutdown of Foster Farms facilities.
500 people get sick.  Good to see the Feds are right on it.  We could replace all inspectors with QR codes in which the producers collect and distribute feedback on process lots of food.  The three people at the party who ate the chicken get sick, we report it.within a day or two of hitting the shelves, a valid and reliable sample of feedback says we have a problem, and retailers get a report, and they pull it, and contact their "club member" cardholders to return the chicken.  This could all be in private hands with competing services.

Bill Marler, a Seattle attorney who specializes in class-action food-safety lawsuits, commended both Foster Farms and the USDA for "doing the right thing for food safety."
We could also get rid of the attorneys, who prey on people's misfortune.

The company was linked to previous salmonella illnesses in 2004 and in 2012.
500 people get sick.  Of course they are, and all those other meg-processors.  In the USA the agricultural policy is get big or get out. It is a famine-inevitable policy.

Recalls of poultry contaminated with salmonella are tricky because the law allows raw chicken to have a certain amount of salmonella — a rule that consumer advocates have long lobbied to change. Because salmonella is so prevalent in poultry and is killed if consumers cook it properly, the government has not declared it to be an "adulterant," or illegal, in meat, as is E. coli.

500 people get sick.  Bon appetit on all those beasties the USDA and FDA allow...  we now have iPhone apps that tell you of meat has gone bad, plus we could have the double check of the QR codes reports.  Why do we need an FDA and USDA or either?
In a letter from USDA to Foster Farms last October, the department said inspectors had documented "fecal material on carcasses" along with "poor sanitary dressing practices, insanitary food contact surfaces, insanitary nonfood contact surfaces and direct product contamination."
A letter? See how small foodmakers get treated.  Get big or get out!

There is the grower, processor, retailers... every one each separately insured, there is the customer and cook...  all watching out.  Malefactors are shunned in the real world.    We need inspectors too?  When we know, from above, they do not prevent harm?  And if you run the numbers, you know they cannot prevent harm.  We'd have to have every tens of millions of inspectors to match the expectation of inspection most Americans have.  What we believe we get cannot be done.  Still want more safety?  Then get what will work...
We would like to introduce you Peres – the first electronic nose in the world that helps you to determine quality of meat, poultry and fish. Peres helps to determine are these products are sound and suitable to use - this reduces the risk of food poisoning.It’s a device that helps everyone who cares about nutrition of themselves and their loved ones to quickly evaluate what they are going to eat themselves or offer their family or quests.
We'll see more of these, and they will get very good indeed.  Time to start discussing eliminating the FDA and USDA.  We had neither for the first 150 years of this country, and people were not dropping dead like flies.

Yet, with get big or get out, even the "good beef" producers are obliged to use "USDA & FDA approved" slaughterhouses that somehow escape inspectors notice.  You'll note that government run new-services say nothing about how all this came to pass.  People who did business with the defunct slaughter house say rumor has it there was "love gone wrong in the abattoir."  And the purchase by a new owner and odd event.

We need a new policy: be small and get left alone.  We can then start to recover food safety in USA, which has been compromised by "get big or get out" and "the regulated always capture the regulators" at the big business level.

Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.


0 comments: