Comments on: The Weekend Special: E. Coli with Cheese

By: Jill

Jill — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:43:14 +0000

What’s with all those steps? Why do we have to steralize our meat before it’s eaten? Doesn’t that say something about the condition of the animal and ultimately the meat that we eat. No thanks. I’ll stick to the butchers I trust, who sell meat from animals who have lived a good life. It’s good for me, the earth and the animals. Win-win-win.

By: Katie

Katie — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:02:00 +0000

Are you freaking kidding me Otter? That “inspected” meat wasn’t detected as being contaminated until people got sick! The meat was out, got people sick and then determined to be contaminated. That makes no sense. Our meat industry is totally whacked out. Individuals who think otherwise just don’t want to admit the truth because then they will have to change their behavior and either stop eating meat or change who they buy from (and pay a little more).

By: Aimee

Aimee — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:19:52 +0000

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:49:58 +0000

Otter — Those “occasional lapses” resulted in the largest meat recall in U.S. history last year! And it was discovered by the Humane Society, not the USDA.

It was in all the headlines:
Reuters: Massive U.S. meat recall
Feb. 18 – A California meatpacker accused of animal cruelty has been ordered to make the largest U.S. meat recall on record — 143 million lbs or 65 million kilos.
–
The U.S. tests less than 1 percent of meat.

Meat recalls occur more than just occasionally. Here’s a list of current recalls from the USDA. There are 10 for the month of June. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/fsis_recalls/Open_Federal_Cases/

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:56:28 +0000

But the FDA has courteously created a widget for techies to track all the recalls, starting with peanut butter! http://fleshandstone.net/healthandsciencenews/fda_widget.html

By: Otter

Otter — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:17:16 +0000

Of course the meat was USDA-inspected. It was detected by a USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service microbiology lab. From the FSIS press release: “The problem was discovered through FSIS microbiological sampling and an investigation into the distribution of other products.”

If you had lived anywhere other than the US or EU, you would know that our meat supply is fantastically safe. Yes, there are occasional lapses, but as a percentage of animals slaughtered, contamination is extremely rare.

I don’t work for the meat industry–I’m just an MPH who hates misleading information.

By: Aimee

Aimee — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:43:31 +0000

And the dessert special? Well, Tollhouse cookiedough ice cream of course (also on recall)