Meat Safety
In an editorial titled, "Is the meat you buy safe enough?" that appears online at the Eco-Logic Powerhouse website, Henry Lamb evaluates the state of the meat industry and USDA's role in it. He reviews the recent E. coli outbreaks linked to meat produced at Topps and Cargill, and poses the question, "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?"
Mr. Lamb analyzes what in his view is the inadequacy of the current USDA inspection system and discusses USDA's current efforts to implement an animal tracking system - which he believes is completely unnecessary:
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?
Mr. Lamb addresses the argument that irradiation will make food safer, and counters with the argument that if food irradiation is implemented there will be less pressure on slaughterhouses to prevent contamination.
And as to the question of why the average American should care about meat safety, Mr. Lamb concludes, "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."
