OP-ED: Inspect the system - (The Arizona Republic)
February 25, 2008 – 8:13 pmhttp://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0225mon1-25.html
People bite into their hamburgers with some simple expectations.
(1) They believe the food is safe.
(2) They assume the animal that produced the meat was treated humanely.
The recall of 143 million pounds of beef this week challenges those expectations.
(1) Federal food safety inspectors didn’t find the problems; the Humane Society of the United States did.
(2) The animal-protection group’s surreptitiously filmed video shows workers abusing non-ambulatory animals in an effort to get them onto their feet for slaughter. Cows too weak to stand were kicked, smacked in the eye with a paddle and shocked repeatedly. Some were taken to slaughter by forklift.
(3) Federal regulations ban most “downer” cows from the food supply because an animal that is too sick to walk is more likely to carry mad-cow disease or other contamination. Inspectors should have excluded these animals from the slaughter. But, according to society investigators, inspections were done on a set schedule. […]
MORE:
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/news/fsnews.cfm?newsid=24503
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