Lessons from Wales; fallacy of food safety inspections
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Do more inspectors make food safer?
No.
The latest evidence is from Professor Hugh Pennington, who concluded in a report last week that serious failings at every step in the food chain allowed butcher William Tudor to start the 2005 E. coli O157 outbreak, and that while the responsibility for the outbreak, “falls squarely on the shoulders of Tudor,” there was no shortage of errors.
Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan picked up on that theme yesterday and pledged to do everything possible to prevent a repeat of the E.coli outbreak of 2005 – for the sake of the families affected.
“Poor hygiene practices at the abattoir and the butcher’s premises” caused the outbreak, but he added,
“These failings were not dealt with effectively by the Meat Hygiene Service or local authority environmental health officers. …” Environmental health inspectors need to “sharpen up” and “drill down beyond the box-ticking part of the inspection process to the potential danger of the reality beyond.”
In his report Pennington said an inspector who made four pre-arranged visits to Tudor’s in the run-up to the outbreak, should not have allowed him to continue using one vacuum-packing machine for both raw and cooked meat because of the risk of cross contamination.
Among his 24 recommendations, Pennington said all checks should be unannounced, unless there were exceptional circumstances.
Don’t tell mom the babysitter’s dead.
Poop in the field
Monterey County, California's, Agricultural Field Toilet Inspection Program requires clean toilets, hand-washing stations and drinking water for Monterey County's workers, enforcing long-standing state laws with new resolve.The increased inspections are meant to encourage good hygiene among workers and to prevent crops from being contaminated.
Lourdes Bosquez, Salinas office supervisor of Consumer Health Protection Services, said,
"We used to do this in the '80s and '90s. Now, with the E. coli outbreaks, we thought it was important that we brought the program back."
Farmers will need Health Department permits for their field toilets by Jan. 1.
Our video for Poop in the Field is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL8iXUbTqgI.
Restaurant inspection -- by Larry the Cable Guy
Despite being universally panned by critics and avoided by moviegoers, I finally saw Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector while editing news the other night. Sure it's terrible and deserves its #87 ranking in IMDb's Bottom 100, but it has some food safety moments.When Larry's partner, Amy Butlin, asks,
"How did you become a health inspector? I mean working for the government, it sounds so exciting?"
Larry responds:
"Well, I gotta tell ya, Keepin people from blowin' chunks and crappin' on themselves is pretty much all I've ever been good at. I mean, no one really knows the responsibility I carry around."
Favorite line? After ingesting some tainted food, Larry proclaims:
"My stomach ain't felt this bad since I got the fish sticks out of the vending machine at the Phillips 66."
U.S. has safest meat in the world; outbreaks increase
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I don't know much about farm bills and state versus federal inspection. But claims that,
"U.S. consumers enjoy the safest meat and poultry products in the world,"
especially as E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks in the U.S. appear on the rise and more sick people are identified in Wisconsin, seems to be the height of hubris.
But that's what Ron de Yong, director of the Montana Department of Agriculture, wrote in the Montana Billings Gazette this morning.
An outdated federal law prohibits state-inspected plants from selling products across state lines despite a provision in the law that requires these plants to have safety standards that equal or exceed those of USDA-inspected facilities. …
There are many reasons to abolish the 1967 prohibition on interstate shipments of state-inspected meat. … Enabling interstate sales of state-inspected meat and poultry will provide economic fairness and open markets. New marketing opportunities not only will benefit producers, processors and small businesses, but also will give consumers more choices at the supermarket. This change is common sense and it's the right thing to do.
Maybe. But spouting off about the safest anything in the world without the comparative data to back up such claims seems like a bad way to sell an idea.
China GM: Our food is the safest in the world
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Those Chinese learn fast. No sooner had I posted about a USDA official proclaiming that the U.S. had the safest meat supply in the world as 25 were barfing from E. coli O157:H7, then China jumped into the fray, borrowing a page from the US, Canadian, British and Kiwi (and lots of other countries) playbook.
Zhong Yuhua, the general manager, Fusheng Food Co., was quoted as telling reporters who were invited on a government-organized tour of three food exporters in Shandong province, southeast of Beijing that,
"I am very confident in saying our food is excellent and the safest in the world."
The story says that Fusheng is part of a Chinese food industry elite of export-oriented companies that, often with foreign help, have improved quality to meet import standards in Japan, the United States and elsewhere.
I don't believe any of youse. How about a moratorium on, "We have the safest food in the world," until someone publishes some meaningful comparative data in a peer reviewed journal. Or at least back the statement up with some data. Anything. Bland blanket statements serve only to amplify rather than mollify consumer concerns.
U.S. official says meat supply safest in world; 25 react by barfing
Dr. Richard Raymond, the Agriculture Department's undersecretary of food Safety, said on CBS's ""The Early Show'' this morning that,
"I think the American meat supply is the safest in the world. A recall like this does show that we are on the job, we are doing our inspections, our investigation, and we respond when we find problems to make sure that supply is safe.''
Raymond joins the Brits, Canadians and Kiwis, who all apparently have the safest food supply in the world.
They can't all be right.
Meanwhile, an Associated Press story notes cited a Topps official as saying over the weekend that the company has now augmented its procedures with microbiologists and food-safety experts.
I'm sure all this is a tremendous relief to the at least 25 individuals who have been barfing with E. coli O157:H7 in eight states.
