Feeling Safer Yet?
Dec 21st, 2007 at 7:10 am by Susie
Gee. You mean that system of self-reporting didn’t work?
After three relatively quiet years, the 20 recalls this year have raised new doubts about whether the beef industry’s attempts to keep the pathogen out of ground beef, and the government’s oversight of those efforts, are working.
Agriculture Department officials, who oversee the safety of pork, beef and poultry, say they did not recognize that anything was seriously amiss with the beef supply until the Topps recall hit.
Microbiologists say the prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 in the environment is highly variable, and no one can say with certainty what caused the spike in outbreaks. In several instances this year, however, USDA officials missed red flags and were slow to correct longstanding deficiencies in the way they monitor beef processors’ efforts to contain the pathogen.
And* I’*m sure the underfunding helped matters, too…
[...] Feeling Safer Yet? [...]