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    Repiglican Roast

    A spirited discussion of public policy and current issues

    Name:
    Location: The mouth of being

    I'm furious about my squandered nation.

    Sunday, November 11, 2007

    The E.coli Loophole or the Poison Food Supply

    [...]
    The "E. coli loophole" affects millions of pounds of beef each year that tests positive for the presence of E. coli O157:H7, a particularly virulent strain of the bacterium.
    The agency allows companies to put this E. coli-positive meat in a special category—"cook only." Cooking the meat, the USDA and producers say, destroys the bacteria and makes it safe to eat as precooked hamburgers, meat loaf, crumbled taco meat and other products.

    But some USDA inspectors say the "cook only" practice means that higher-than-appropriate levels of E. coli are tolerated in packing plants, raising the chance that clean meat will become contaminated. They say the "cook only" practice is part of the reason for this year's sudden rise in incidents of E. coli contamination.

    "All the product that is E. coli positive, they put a 'cooking only' tag on it," said one inspector, who like other federal inspectors interviewed asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing their jobs. "They [companies] will test, and everything that's positive, they slap that label on.
    [...]

    This is the kind of shit that happens when the right wing has decades to chip away at the federal government and destroy all the regulatory agencies as part of a package of socialism for corporations.

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