The food supply in the United States is, without a doubt, the safest in the world. But when 21-million pounds of ground beef--inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture--is recalled because it contains E. COLI O157:H7, the question must be asked: is the meat you buy safe enough?
The Topps Meat Company, a 67-year old New Jersey firm, closed its doors on October 5, sending 87 employees to the unemployment line, because 21.7 million pounds of its product contained E. COLI O157:H7. This strain "produces a powerful toxin and can cause severe illness, kidney failure, and even death,"
according to the USDA.
Every package of this contaminated meat contained a USDA inspection seal. Why did the USDA inspection fail to discover this contamination before it was shipped to stores across the nation?
On November 3, Cargill Meat Solutions voluntarily recalled more than a million pounds of beef. Every package of the meat contained a USDA inspection seal. Why did the USDA inspection fail to discover this contamination before it was shipped to stores across the nation? Amanda Eamich, a spokesperson for the USDA, said that some processing operations are inspected every 15 minutes, while others may be inspected once a month. Typically, there is at least one inspector on every shift.
Obviously, this inspection procedure is inadequate.
E.COLI is a bacteria that lives in the intestines of animals. It can contaminate meat if the intestines are ruptured during processing. When contaminated meat is mixed with non-contaminated meat, as in the production of ground beef, the entire production run is contaminated. Why was the contamination of the Topps meat, and the Cargill meat not discovered before the meat was packaged and shipped?
How can this inspection deficiency be corrected? Will it take more inspectors? Will it take new procedures? Whatever it takes, American consumers expect the
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service to do whatever is necessary to assure that the meat that reaches the grocery store is safe.
In view of these two most recent recalls, it would seem that the USDA would be extremely embarrassed, and working on a crash program to improve their food safety procedures. Apparently, the USDA has higher priorities.
There is far more interest and effort at the USDA to get every property where any one of 29 species of livestock animals reside, registered into a federally controlled database. What does this effort have to do with preventing contamination in the meat processing plant?
While the USDA is spending $138 million--so far--trying to convince animal owners to tag every single livestock animal--including chickens, ducks, goats, cows, horses, alpacas, llamas, and pot-bellied pigs--with a 15-digit RFID tag, E.COLI-contaminated meat is passing under the noses of USDA inspectors and receiving the USDA seal of approval.
Had the animals that caused the recall of the meat products at Topps and Cargill been officially tagged with their 15-digit RFID tag, and the property where they were raised officially recorded in a government database--it would not have prevented the contamination or the recall.
It may, however, have enabled the USDA to point a finger at a poor farmer somewhere, to say that the cow that caused the recall came from a particular farm. Which, incidentally, is completely irrelevant. The contamination was caused because intestines were ruptured somewhere during the process, and the USDA inspectors failed to catch it.
By promoting the National Animal Identification System, and neglecting the steps necessary to prevent food contamination in the processing plant, the USDA is focusing on the wrong problem.
Rather than try to build a massive computerized system to identify and trace the movement of more than a half-billion livestock animals in the United States, the USDA should focus only on those animals bound for the slaughter house. The USDA should concentrate only on the animals that are brought to a feedlot in preparation for slaughter. Here is where animals mingle, and here is where a disease is most likely to become apparent. Every animal in every feedlot should be inspected before it goes to slaughter. Every feedlot operator already knows the origin of every animal accepted. A massive database of registered properties and animals is completely unnecessary.
Every step in the processing operation should be monitored and inspected--much better than the current procedure that allowed millions of pounds of contaminated meat to be shipped. It matters not how safe the USDA system might be, if you are among those who fall ill as the result of inadequate USDA inspection procedures. To these people, the system is obviously not safe enough.
