Food Still Isn't Safe
Another day, another ptomaine episode. Today, Olive Garden gets the shaft.
Health officials said they're investigating the cases of 19 people who said they became ill after eating at an Olive Garden restaurant in northeastern Indianapolis over the weekend.
The 19 began showing classic symptoms of food-borne illness within 48 hours of dining at the Castleton-area restaurant on Sunday, health officials told 6News' Stacia Matthews. [ht to Atrios poster, I forget which one]
While dining out has the public dropping like flies, your trustworthy federal government sends out letters - yes, I said letters - to keep us safe.
In July of 2002, E. coli attorney Bill Marler called on the fresh produce industry to invest in research to make lettuce safe in a press release. Since that time, the Food and Drug Administration has written numerous letters to the leafy greens industry in an attempt to prevent further outbreaks from happening.
As I reported in November, the spinach episode which traced back to California processing failures, followed by episodes like the recent Taco Bell scare has caused food industries to join in demanding, of all things, better regulation. It's joke material, that in order to retain the public trust the food suppliers are demanding their controls be stricter. This is the opposite of course of the financial world, where the cry is for the SEC to stop looking at their books.
The nation's largest supermarket chains have given produce growers six weeks to establish new safety rules to prevent deadly E. coli outbreaks.
A consortium that includes the owners of the Vons, Albertsons and Ralphs grocery chains and Costco Wholesale Corp. says it is alarmed that another episode like the recent contamination of fresh spinach could hurt its members and their customers.
"We need a timeline to focus energy on taking action immediately," said Ron Anderson, vice president of produce for Vons owner Safeway Inc. "Obviously there is a sense of urgency in the mind of the consumer."
Guess what, the six weeks is up. The date on that dispatch was November 2, it's now December 15. Guess that means yesterday, six weeks after the produce growers were given six weeks, we're not any safer.
Today, Bix processing announces that they're going to do better.
The company that supplied E. coli contaminated lettuce that's believed to have sickened dozens of people in Minnesota and Iowa said it is adding new food safety measures.
Bix Produce Co., of St. Paul, said Thursday it will begin sampling its incoming raw produce for E. coli and salmonella contamination. The company also hired a crisis management expert and is trying to prevent the loss of more clients -- after Taco John's restaurants dropped Bix as its shredded lettuce provider.
******************************************
State officials said Taco John's decision to suspend its business with Bix is unlikely to prevent an outbreak.
"All they're changing is the processor," said Kevin Elfering, director of the dairy and food inspection for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. "The source is probably going to be the same place -- Arizona or California."
Having lost a major business, the processor institutes controls.
The Agriculture Department's inspection systems have been turned into 'voluntary' practitioners of what should be real safety rules. If you did no better in your home, the CPI would soon be at your door letting you know you were not doing your job as a parent. Ag is paid to protect the public interest, and they have given over their function to those industries that the department favors protecting over regulating. Now those same industries are hurting, the public trust is lost, and even the food industries are crying because the Ag Dept fails to do its job. The inspection system is broken if it's not going to protect its clients/constituents.
From the San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 19, 2006;
"We don't see this disease in India, Africa, China. We only see it in highly technologically advanced countries, and the reason is because of this highly centralized food processing system," said Lee Riley, professor of infectious disease and epidemiology at UC Berkeley.
It is getting noticeably less safe to eat the food in this country.
Health officials said they're investigating the cases of 19 people who said they became ill after eating at an Olive Garden restaurant in northeastern Indianapolis over the weekend.
The 19 began showing classic symptoms of food-borne illness within 48 hours of dining at the Castleton-area restaurant on Sunday, health officials told 6News' Stacia Matthews. [ht to Atrios poster, I forget which one]
While dining out has the public dropping like flies, your trustworthy federal government sends out letters - yes, I said letters - to keep us safe.
In July of 2002, E. coli attorney Bill Marler called on the fresh produce industry to invest in research to make lettuce safe in a press release. Since that time, the Food and Drug Administration has written numerous letters to the leafy greens industry in an attempt to prevent further outbreaks from happening.
As I reported in November, the spinach episode which traced back to California processing failures, followed by episodes like the recent Taco Bell scare has caused food industries to join in demanding, of all things, better regulation. It's joke material, that in order to retain the public trust the food suppliers are demanding their controls be stricter. This is the opposite of course of the financial world, where the cry is for the SEC to stop looking at their books.
The nation's largest supermarket chains have given produce growers six weeks to establish new safety rules to prevent deadly E. coli outbreaks.
A consortium that includes the owners of the Vons, Albertsons and Ralphs grocery chains and Costco Wholesale Corp. says it is alarmed that another episode like the recent contamination of fresh spinach could hurt its members and their customers.
"We need a timeline to focus energy on taking action immediately," said Ron Anderson, vice president of produce for Vons owner Safeway Inc. "Obviously there is a sense of urgency in the mind of the consumer."
Guess what, the six weeks is up. The date on that dispatch was November 2, it's now December 15. Guess that means yesterday, six weeks after the produce growers were given six weeks, we're not any safer.
Today, Bix processing announces that they're going to do better.
The company that supplied E. coli contaminated lettuce that's believed to have sickened dozens of people in Minnesota and Iowa said it is adding new food safety measures.
Bix Produce Co., of St. Paul, said Thursday it will begin sampling its incoming raw produce for E. coli and salmonella contamination. The company also hired a crisis management expert and is trying to prevent the loss of more clients -- after Taco John's restaurants dropped Bix as its shredded lettuce provider.
******************************************
State officials said Taco John's decision to suspend its business with Bix is unlikely to prevent an outbreak.
"All they're changing is the processor," said Kevin Elfering, director of the dairy and food inspection for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. "The source is probably going to be the same place -- Arizona or California."
Having lost a major business, the processor institutes controls.
The Agriculture Department's inspection systems have been turned into 'voluntary' practitioners of what should be real safety rules. If you did no better in your home, the CPI would soon be at your door letting you know you were not doing your job as a parent. Ag is paid to protect the public interest, and they have given over their function to those industries that the department favors protecting over regulating. Now those same industries are hurting, the public trust is lost, and even the food industries are crying because the Ag Dept fails to do its job. The inspection system is broken if it's not going to protect its clients/constituents.
From the San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 19, 2006;
"We don't see this disease in India, Africa, China. We only see it in highly technologically advanced countries, and the reason is because of this highly centralized food processing system," said Lee Riley, professor of infectious disease and epidemiology at UC Berkeley.
It is getting noticeably less safe to eat the food in this country.
Labels: Food Safety
posted by Ruth at 12:47 PM
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