[Sixstrings]

Oh, and by the way, this is a Class I recall. What does that mean?



Last year saw a great number of widely publicized instances of food fraud and general nastiness when it came to the various items many of us regularly put in our bodies. From “fake tuna,” to rat meat in the streets of Shanghai, to alcohol in New Jersey diluted with “river water,” the list was seemingly endless.

While 2014 has been off to a slow start, it appears the corporate food industry in America is trying to make up for lost time. According to a news release from the USDA on Valentine’s Day titled: “California Firm Recalls Unwholesome Meat Products Produced Without the Benefit of Full Inspection,” we discover that:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2014 – Rancho Feeding Corporation, a Petaluma, Calif. establishment, is recalling approximately 8,742,700 pounds, because it processed diseased and unsound animals and carried out these activities without the benefit or full benefit of federal inspection. Thus, the products are adulterated, because they are unsound, unwholesome or otherwise are unfit for human food and must be removed from commerce, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-20/hot-pockets-recalls-8-million-pounds-meat-due-diseased-unsound-animals

Lessons learned:

* Sorry Republicans, but this is why you do need gubbermint regulation and food inspectors.

* I remember a thread about a month ago where someone posted that Canada is contesting American origin of meat labeling requirements. This hot pockets thing is WHY we need to know where meat comes from. So you can track it down.

And..

Thank goodness I don't eat hot pockets.

Does anyone know how serious this is? What, exactly, IS a "diseased animal" and how does that make this a class 1 recall? What are the risks? Hot Pockets are processed, doesn't the cooking kill off bacteria? Are we talking about something like mad cow?

[PrestonSturges]

This is what happens to recalled or suspect meat - it gets precooked for convenience foods, frozen meatballs, canned soups etc. Or it goes into pet food. If it's beyond salvage, it goes to a rendering plant for processing into chemicals and food additives.

This is something to think about when you checking out prepared foods.

[Sixstrings]

This is what happens to recalled or suspect meat - it gets precooked for convenience foods, frozen meatballs, canned soups etc. Or it goes into pet food. If it's beyond salvage, it goes to a rendering plant for processing into chemicals and food additives.

Well Christ, there's some canned soups I like.

What does "suspect" meat mean. Or "beyond salvage." What exactly is wrong with the meat? The animal was sick? There's disease? How can you catch that if it's cooked?

Or we talking about spoiled meat / rot -- what happens if that's cooked at high temp. I've never even thought about this before, I thought canned goods were safe.

[PrestonSturges]

Well they recall a couple million pounds of frozen ground beef because they suspect some of it is bad. So they get back dozens of box cars and they can test individual lots. Maybe only one lot was bad, maybe none of it was actually bad. Now they have a million pounds of beef to get rid off, but they original packaging is outdated, so they direct it into a different product line.

I worked at the health department when someone brought in a huge can of pressed ham, like 15 lbs, because they thought it might be bad. We told themwe'd test it, then we went across the street for bar-b-q sauce, cooked it up in a big pot, and ate it.

[Quinny]

Its def more tender. Trrouble is i like my meat rare. For all the benefits of composting toilets there are times when the old flusher is essential.

[KaiserJeep]

One problem is Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a little understood disease which spread from the UK to the dark green areas:



The problem being that 5-15 years pass between the consumption of tainted meat and the first symptoms. I give blood periodicly, and the Red Cross started screening for donors who have consumed beef in or from the UK about 2005.

The symptoms of the resulting vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) are similar to Alzheimers. There is some evidence that the "Wasting Disease" that afflicts wild game (primarily venison) in the US/Canada has the same or a similar underlying cause.

An uptick in the disease was noted in 2012 in North America, and the 2013 statistics should get published this month or next.

The cradle-to-grave tracking of beef via ear tags is expected to produce results soon, we have been tracking the vCJD symptoms and statistics and performing extensive computer analysis.



Trust the Federal Government to take care of you.