• Government Hides Source Of Contaminated Meat, Then Blames Public For Not Cooking Meat Long Enough

    Posted August 5, 2011: by Bill Sardi

    One can view the cozy relationship between government and industry in the recent overdue disclosure by the US Department of Agriculture that a major supplier of turkey meat was the source of Salmonella infections that have sickened 76 Americans and killed one. The meat itself was produced and shipped begnning in February 2011. Pressure had been building on USDA to identify the source of the contaminated meat, and after 1 death had been reported, USDA said it would identify the source “very soon.”

    The outbreak began in March of 2011 but the source was not identified till 6 months later and then the USDA announced a recall of 36 million pounds of turkey meat, but only after 1 death had finally been reported. Effectively, there is likely to be little economic consequences for the supplier, only public embarrassment, because most of the contaminated meat has likely been cooked and consumed.

    Before the days of grain-fed animals, grass-feeding produced more acidic digestive tracts in these animals and soil-based bacteria will killed off more easily, and then cooking and stomach acid in consumers killed off the remaining bacteria (foods are not sterile). Low bacteria and fungal counts in foods are required by US FDA and USDA regulations. But now bacterial counts are 100-fold higher and then more antibiotics are employed in animals, and then of course there are more antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria that arise.

    A significant percentage of turkey meat has been found to harbor antibiotic resistant Salmonella. Corn feeding of poultry increases Salmonella counts considerably. The addition of acidic bacteria to stored turkey meat reduces Salmonella counts. It is not known if the animals involved in this recent contamination were fed with corn or if acidic bacteria were added to reduce Salmonella counts.

    It is particularly galling that the head of the USDA pushes the blame on consumers for not cooking meat long enough and at high temperature, rather than complying with the Pure Food & Drug Act and ensuring that meat products exhibit low bacteria and fungal counts prior to release into the marketplace.

    But when industry owns government by pay offs and flood Washington DC with lobbyists, America ends up with a fascist food chain. Whatever is served up by American food producers is good enough for American consumers. The USDA chief says consumers should throw questionable meat products away, not demand refunds for impure products. Thank you for protecting us USDA! — © 2011 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc. Not for posting on other websites.

    Posted in Diet, Germs ; No Comments »

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.