With the recent announcement that the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) has recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey due to Salmonella contamination is far more routine than it should be. It seems that about every two or three months we have contaminated, meat, spinach and lettuce, or other commonly eaten food. 50 million people get food poisoning each year in the US and much of it is due to Salmonella. The FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service) is the division that oversees the safety of our food. They continue to say that they are short-staffed and underfunded. This is not a new comment, as the same result occurs every time that we have a threat of illness. And, in their defense, they cannot possibly test all samples of all food sold in the US. It is statistically an impossibility.
It seems to me to be a matter of corporate responsibility as well as government regulation and enforcement. In this case Cargill, the turkey supplier should have caught this before it left the company for distribution. There will be an investigation, maybe a fine, and that will be it until the next time. But, we as consumers have a responsibility as well. When we buy from local farm stands and markets, we need to ask if they use pesticides, insecticides, and fertilizer type. Are they certified organic? And most of all we need to wash vegetables thoroughly and cook local meat products completely. Remember that these local stands, as important as they are, are not regulated at all.
So what is the trend? It will become more prevalent to see Salmonella as more countries in the temperate zones compete for the American market. After all, they know that we are overfed and throw away more than 25% of our food...
It seems to me to be a matter of corporate responsibility as well as government regulation and enforcement. In this case Cargill, the turkey supplier should have caught this before it left the company for distribution. There will be an investigation, maybe a fine, and that will be it until the next time. But, we as consumers have a responsibility as well. When we buy from local farm stands and markets, we need to ask if they use pesticides, insecticides, and fertilizer type. Are they certified organic? And most of all we need to wash vegetables thoroughly and cook local meat products completely. Remember that these local stands, as important as they are, are not regulated at all.
So what is the trend? It will become more prevalent to see Salmonella as more countries in the temperate zones compete for the American market. After all, they know that we are overfed and throw away more than 25% of our food...
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