Meat recall in Louisiana

Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. recalled more than 40,000 lbs of ground beef today. The contaminated meat tested positive for signs of E. coli contamination at a Sherman, Texas plant. Louisiana is one of 12 states that have been affected. To find out more information about the recall, including which products have been recalled, go here.

Luckily no illnesses have been reported yet.

Situations like these bring to the forefront problems with our food industry such as how safe is our food and how much of our food gets inspected for problems such as E. coli. Large meat processors can spread food borne illnesses much more easily and meat from a single cow may contaminate a large batch of hamburger.

Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten that Big Mac for lunch today, but I digress …

The U.S. food inspection system is increasingly inefficient, leading to problems such as the peanut butter recall several months back or the pet food recall recently. And of course, there is a pretty good chance that the food will be consumed by the buyer before it has a chance to be recalled. I had two bottles of the recalled peanut butter in my cupboards, and by the time the recall was announced, each bottle was about half-way eaten already.

There have been big cuts in food and drug safety inspection that originated from the White House’s budget submissions. The White House has also fought to keep meatpackers from testing their cows for mad cow disease. In fact, when a small company called Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wanted to test their cows for mad cow disease, the USDA told them no, and refused to sell them testing kits for the cows. Large meat companies feared that the move would require them to test their larger herds as well and the USDA argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the industry.

Personally, I’d rather have my food safe to eat and the USDA should let Creekstone Farms test their meat if they want to. Let’s see if the American people prefer their meat to be safe and inspected, instead of having safety measures cut, particularly in the light of food recalls. Let the free enterprise system do its job.