Sneigwh blogs's End of the Year food issue: The Hamburger Helpers

Or : What’s your beef?

Beef Products Inc.uses contaminant susceptible beef fat trimmings, which in the past had been used for pet food or cooking, oil to manufacture hamburger sold to the majority of burger-doodles and many schools.
The stuff that was formerly only safe for pet food is run through a process with ammonia and magically its food. The process so thorough it isn’t even subject to routine inspection!
Well...wash it with ammonia and call it inspected

Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture endorsed the company’s ammonia treatment, and have said it destroys E. coli “to an undetectable level.” They decided it was so effective that in 2007, when the department began routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public, they exempted Beef Products.
But government and industry records obtained by
The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated

The company says its processed beef, a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips, is used in a majority of the hamburger sold nationwide. But it has remained little known outside industry and government circles. Federal officials agreed to the company’s request that the ammonia be classified as a “processing agent” and not an ingredient that would be listed on labels.

Salmonella and peanut oversight

96% of people, when making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, put the peanut butter on before the jelly and April 2nd was National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day .Other more serious peanut news graphically highlights the FDA’s oversight capability and by extension may cause concern over other public safety oversight capabilities of the government. A recall of peanuts was only made after the Center for Disease Control detected clusters of salmonella poisoning’s common element, peanuts. Nine people died, 1,400 were made ill from bad peanuts and even with this news front and center for weeks nothing moves forward easily. I have been known to exist for weeks at time on a diet of peanut butter and saltines so this is understandably troubling.

"The reality of the basic system at FDA is that there is no requirement for companies to have in place modern preventive controls," said Mike Taylor, a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and a former FDA official. The recent voluntary recall of pistachios was initiated (ironically on National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day) after a private “auditor” hired by the processor discovered the tainted nuts.

Neither the Food nor Drug Administration nor state laws require food manufacturers to test the safety of their products.
In January 2009 Sen.LeahyVt. (D) and Rep.Rosa DeLauroCt.(D) called for criminal investigations of Peanut Corporation of America.

“We believe it is critical to determine whether the actions and omissions of this company rose to the level of criminal conduct.”

Yet ……

Despite four outbreaks of salmonella illness from peanut products in the past three years, the federal government has not changed the safety measures required of peanut companies or instructed its inspectors to test for the bacteria. In all, the outbreaks have killed nine people and sickened more than 1,400.
During its investigation of the Peanut Corporation case, the FDA discovered about 20 additional facilities that have been making peanut products without the knowledge of federal regulators. It learned about the facilities because they were buying peanuts from PCA, said Michael Herndon, an FDA spokesman. The agency will not name the 20 facilities or say where they are located, he said, adding that FDA inspectors are planning to visit each site shortly.

Senator Leahy
www.washingtonpost.com