E. Coli Death in Kentucky Possibly Linked to American Foods Group Ground Beef Recall

The American Foods Group ground beef recall was issue on November 24, 2007. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) deemed the recall a Class I action, with health risks listed as “high.” The American Foods Group recall involved ground beef distributed to stores in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Virginia. The E. coli contaminated ground beef was produced at the American Foods Group meat packing plant in Green Bay, Wisconsin on October 10. The products where distributed for further processing and repackaging, so the tainted ground beef will not bear the processor’s establishment number. As the use-by date for products subject to this recall may have expired, consumers can contact their retailers to ask if they received any of these products and if so, consumers are urged to look in their freezers for these products and return or discard them if found.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, E. coli is responsible for sickening 73,000 people every year, and of those, 60 will die from the disease. E. coli is marked by the sudden onset of stomach pain and severe cramps. This is followed by diarrhea that is watery and bloody. Sometimes there is vomiting, but there is no fever. While most people will recover completely, E. coli poisoning can be very dangerous for children, the elderly and anyone with a weak immune system. In some cases, E. coli will cause a disorder called hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can be life-threatening.

E. coli tainted meat has become a major health problem, as the number of outbreaks and meat recalls blamed on this deadly bacteria have reached record levels in recent months. So far this year, there have been dozens of recalls of E. coli contaminated meat, more than double what they where in 2006. Often, the slow action by meat processors, the USA and other agencies charged with protecting the US food supply allows E. coli contaminated foods to sicken thousands of people across the country.

Did ConAgra Pay off Inspector?

FDA Failed to Follow Up on 2004 Peanut Butter Contamination

Inspector visited ConAgra plant but agency dropped the ball
At least four deaths blamed on subsequent Salmonella outbreak

US Department of Agriculture monitors meat safety under a system that allows meat processors to design their own food safety plans

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The current system lacks coordination, uniformity and authority. It is understaffed and focused too much on fixing problems instead of preventing them.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture monitors meat safety under a system that allows meat processors to design their own food safety plans. Many in the meat industry have strict guidelines and test meat for pathogens at various stages in the butchering process, but there is no federal requirement for such tests, according to the American Meat Institute.

USDA inspectors are monitoring compliance with these company-written plans, but the USDA cannot mandate changes in the plans, says Patty Lovera, assistant director of the Washington-based food-safety group, Food and Water Watch.

USDA inspectors are thinly spread. One inspector was assigned to the Topps Meat Co., which claimed to produce more hamburger patties than any other U.S. plant until it went out of business earlier this month. As you probably remember, Topps folded after the recall of about 22 million pounds of its meat.

The recall was not ordered by the USDA. The federal regulatory agency doesn't have the authority to order a recall. The company announced the recall 18 days after initial tests showed contamination with the potentially deadly E.coli bacteria.

The federal inspector assigned to Topps didn't find the E.coli contamination. That discovery was made after dozens of people became ill and the pathogen was traced to Topps.

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ConAgra's Poion Peanut Butter Plant Reopens after 6 Months

U.S. food imports set to top more than $2 trillion this year

No, it isn't the consumer who is to blame for this disaster as these industry shills claim. It is cheap labor and lack of standards in other countries. The usual corporatist horse shit.

Boy does the barn need cleaning.

The food inspectors are not doing their job

U.S. regulators issued 72 letters in the first eight months of the year warning food suppliers of safety violations, the fewest in a decade, even after tainted spinach and peanut butter sickened hundreds of Americans.

The number of Food and Drug Administration warnings was a quarter of the comparable 2001 total, public records analyzed by Bloomberg showed. The agency cut its food inspection staff 28 percent from four years ago and visited fewer of the 329,000 facilities in the U.S. and abroad for which it is responsible.

In the past 13 months, there have been nationwide recalls of spinach contaminated with E.coli and peanut butter tainted with salmonella. The FDA issued warnings that seafood from China may contain cancer-causing additives. Reduced FDA oversight increases the danger that unsafe food will reach consumers, causing illness or death, former regulators say.

``The potential for greater risk is there,'' Mark McClellan, who was FDA commissioner under President George W. Bush from 2002 to 2004, said in an interview. ``Limited resources are stretching the agency too far'' after managers diverted staff to drugs and medical devices.

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See How the heartless bastards at Con Agra waited to recall their salmonella tainted crap?

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The move came on the same day that a Minnesota mother, angry that Banquet pot pies believed to have sickened her daughter and dozens more could still be found in stores, filed a lawsuit against ConAgra.

ConAgra, based in Omaha, Neb., had maintained that better cooking directions were the remedy for a salmonella outbreak now tied to 165 cases in 31 states, including Oregon.

UPDATE 2-US food companies discount probe of Iraq deals

Con Agra claims poisoning regular run of the mil Americans is quite enough for them. But we'll see. Certainly no one at any agribusiness conglomerate has a shred of credibility.
[...]

The Wall Street Journal said the Justice Department and the Defense Department were examining whether the companies charged excessively high prices to the Army's primary food contractor in the war zone, a Kuwaiti firm called Agility (AGLT.KW: Quote, Profile, Research).

Agility's dealings are the subject of "a very large and active investigation into criminal and civil fraud involving hundreds of millions of dollars," Justice Department lawyer Brian Mizoguchi told a judge in Federal Claims Court in Washington on June 12, the Journal reported.

ConAgra Foods Inc (CAG.N: Quote, Profile, Research), a leading packaged-food vendor, said it had been assured by the Defense Department that its role in the investigation "is limited to that of a witness."

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Georgia Firm Recalls Ground Beef Products Due To Possible E. coli O157:H7 Contamination

Arko Veal Co., a Forest Park, Ga., establishment, is voluntarily recalling approximately 1,900 pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.

The product subject to recall includes:

-50-pound cases of "BEEF PATTIES MIX," "80/20." Each case bears the establishment number "Est. 20766" inside the USDA mark of inspection and a product code of "502250." Each case bears a production date of "07-Oct-07," "08-Oct-07" or "09-Oct-07."

The beef products were produced between Oct. 7 and Oct. 9, 2007, and were distributed to restaurants in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. There was no retail distribution of these products.
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What passes for food in America or a list of some ConAgra's Crap

• Act II - Microwave Popcorn
• Andy Capp's fries - flavoured corn and potato snack made to look like French fries.
• Banquet - Frozen chicken and ready-to-heat meals
• Big Mama Sausage - Snack-sized preserved sausages
• Blue Bonnet - Margarine and bread spreads
• Chef Boyardee - Ready-to-eat pasta meals
• Crunch 'n Munch - Snack food
• David Sunflower Seeds - Sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds
• Dennison's - Chili
• Egg Beaters - Processed egg product
• Fiddle Faddle - Snack food
• Fleischmann's - Bread spreads
• Gebhardt - Tex-Mex style foods
• Gilardi Foods - Italian-style foods
• Golden Cuisine - Ready-made food for seniors
• Gulden's - Mustard
• Healthy Choice - Ready-to-eat and prepared foods
• Hebrew National - Kosher sausages, cold cuts and condiments
• Hunt's - Canned tomato products, ketchup and barbecue sauce
• Hunt's Snack Pack Pudding - Shelf-stable pudding
• J. Hungerford Smith - Dessert ingredients for restaurants
• Jiffy Pop - Popcorn
• Kid Cuisine - Prepared foods for children
• Knott's Berry Farm - Jams and jellies
• La Choy - Chinese-style foods
• Lamb Weston Inland Valley - Consumer sales of frozen potato products
• Lightlife - Vegetarian meat product substitutes
• Luck's - Canned baked beans
• MaMa Rosa's - Frozen pizzas and snack foods
• Manwich - Canned sloppy Joe mix
• Margherita - Italian-style processed meats
• Marie Callender's - Frozen meals
• Move Over Butter - Margarine
• Orville Redenbacher's - Popcorn
• PAM - Spray cooking oils
• Parkay - Bread spreads
• Patio - Tex-Mex-style frozen meals
• Pemmican - Beef and turkey jerky
• Penrose - Pickled sausages
• Peter Pan - Peanut butter
• Poppycock - Snack food
• Ranch Style - Baked and Refried beans
• Reddi-wip - Whipped cream
• Ro*tel - Canned tomato sauce
• Rosarita - Mexican-style foods
• Slim Jim - Meat snacks
• Swiss Miss -Powdered cocoa for hot chocolate and pudding
• Squeez 'N Go - Prepared pudding
• Van Camp's - Canned beans
• VH - Sauces (Available in Canada only)
• Wesson - Cooking oils
• Wolf Brand Chili - Chili
• Wolfgang Puck - Prepared foods branded by Chef Wolfgang Puck, founder of Spago

ConAgra Doesn't care if its customers get sick or die from Salmonella

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ConAgra issued a health alert Tuesday afternoon and asked stores nationwide to stop selling Banquet and store-brand chicken and turkey pot pies, but the company didn't recall the pies until Thursday evening. The company and federal officials warned customers not to eat the pot pies and to throw them away, and ConAgra is offering refunds.

The recall, which also includes beef pot pies to avoid confusion, affects all varieties sold under the store brands Albertson's, Hill Country Fare, Food Lion, Great Value (sold at Wal-Mart stores), Kirkwood, Kroger, Meijer and Western Family.

Even though the pot pies made by ConAgra have been linked to at least 174 cases of salmonella in 32 states, the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not have the authority to require the company to recall the pot pies. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at least 33 people have been hospitalized as part of the ongoing outbreak, but so far no deaths have been reported.

[...]

Bill Marler, a lawyer from Seattle-based firm Marler Clark, said if anyone bought ConAgra's pot pies after the company knew about the link to the salmonella outbreak, the company could face punitive damages in a lawsuit because the product wasn't immediately recalled.

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"You're looking at the perfect example of a broken system," Rep. Rosa DeLauro said about the pot pie recall.

Earlier this year, the Connecticut Democrat helped introduce legislation that would give the FDA the power to order mandatory recalls of adulterated food products, plus establish fines for companies that don't promptly report contaminated products.

"It is a voluntary recall, so it is up to the industry," DeLauro said.

[...]

Meat recalls point to possibility threat is growing

Tainted-Beef Recall Sparks Consumer Concerns

Where does your food come from?

That loaf of Sara Lee bread on the grocery shelf in San Jose was made with flour from U.S. wheat. But the Illinois-based food giant uses honey and vitamin supplements from China.

While Paul Newman's daughter uses California figs in cookies made by her Aptos organic food company, she turns to Mexico and Austria for other ingredients.

And even though a Procter & Gamble spokeswoman described Crest toothpaste "as a truly American product," it uses additives from China and Finland.

Recent reports of tainted imports from China have focused new attention on a little-known trend: In today's global economy, more food items are being produced in this country with some ingredients from other lands. But the FDA inspects less than 1 percent of all food imports - and that means consumers must trust food makers to guarantee the safety of their products.

"It's not just the stuff that says `Made in China.' It's the stuff in the stuff that says `Made in the USA,' " said Elisa Odabashian of Consumers Union, a non-profit consumer advocacy group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine. "We're importing more and more of our food and we're inspecting almost none of it."

William Hubbard, a former Food and Drug Administration associate commissioner who is advocating for a beefed-up food safety system in the United States, agreed.

"It's not which foods contain these ingredients, but which foods don't contain them," he said.

You may not know it from the label. Food makers aren't required to disclose the source of what goes into most products.

Some major food makers won't even talk about it. Campbell's and Kraft use ingredients from around the world, although representatives there refused to say which countries supply them.

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Organic Food, with a Side of Pesticides

In 2005, China's organic food exports totaled $350 million--more than double compared to the year before. But questions about whether or not its really organic is on the rise.

This is especially true after the numerous, recent scandals over tainted food products, deadly pet food ingredients, toxic toothpaste and fake medicines made in China.

Fraud is a widespread problem, and China's organic food market is chaotic, say organic farm owners. According to Liu Lei, secretary of the Association of Green Development (a Chinese trade group for organic farmers), many small companies sell produce grown with pesticides and chemical fertilizers as organic.

Since true organic produce does not travel well, most of the fresh fruits and vegetables are sold to closer markets, such as Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. But plenty of it still ends up on your food plate here in the United States.

Organic soybeans, rice and other grains, frozen vegetables, and fruit concentrates are commonly imported from China.

Wal-Mart got caught in the mislabeled organic scam last year, after a surprise inspection revealed their "organic" vegetables were tainted with pesticides. Since then Wal-Mart's organic standards have come under scrutiny again for a variety of mislabeled "organic" food products.

Some American companies are now beginning to take charge of their own organic certification, dispatching their own people to verify the farming and manufacturing practices of their Chinese producers.
[...]

Chinese Imports Highlight Woeful State of Consumer Safety by Ralph Nader

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After years of warnings about farm-raised seafood imports from the Chinese mainland, the FDA’s Dr. David Acheson, in charge of food protection, said: “There’s been a continued pattern of violations with no signs of abatement.” So, finally, the FDA in late June blocked the sale of shrimp, frozen eel, catfish, basa and dace. The reasons included carcinogens and too many antibiotic residues.

Crowded into ponds, farmed Chinese fish are breeding grounds for disease, lice and contaminated water. So heavy doses of antibiotics and other food additives-many illegal in the U.S.-are applied. China is a major exporter of seafood to the U.S. We import 80% of all our seafood.

In recent weeks, disclosures of hundreds of thousands of defective tires (tread separation problems), lead-coated toys, contaminated toothpaste and pet food (which destroyed about 6000 pets) have raised the profile of a situation which is likely to get worse.

China produces products in a horrifically polluted environment-of the water, air and soil. Industrial chemicals, farm run-offs, mountains of toxic waste are alarming Beijing for both domestic consumption as well as foreign trade reasons. Despite loud proclamations of forthcoming action, the Chinese government has waited too long, allowed too much corruption and lax enforcement, and condoned a huge industry in exported counterfeit goods where anything goes.

Although country-of-origin legislation passed Congress in 2002, Mr. Bush-obsessed by the costly Iraq war and indentured to large corporate importers-did not push his Republicans in Congress to provide funds for enforcement. Instead, the president has signed into law delays in the labeling rule. Therefore, except for the required labeling of seafood from foreign countries (consumers take note), all other food in your supermarket is not required to have a label of the country that exported it. It is the majority Democrats’ job now to compel mandatory labeling of all imported foods.

China is the largest apple juice exporter in the world. Apple juice from China is pouring into the United States. Is there anything left that cannot be imported into what was once the greatest food exporter the world has ever seen?

It gets worse. The U.S. is on the verge of becoming a net food importer!

[...]

Poisoning Our Children for Corporate Profit

Study ties hyperactivity in kids to food additives

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“These findings show that adverse effects are not just seen in children with extreme hyperactivity (such as ADHD) but can also be seen in the general population and across the range of severities of hyperactivity,” the researchers wrote in their study, published in the Lancet medical journal.
[...]

FDA Money Goes to Managers (political operatives), Not Scientists Coveted by Drug Firms

Before paying $48,823 in cash bonuses to its chief of regulatory affairs in 2005, the Food and Drug Administration asked her to sign a simple declaration: "If I am unable to receive a retention allowance, I am likely to leave the federal government for a higher paying position in the private sector," wrote Margaret O'K. Glavin.

Glavin's statement did not detail a specific job offer, but that did not impede the payment. Over the past 4 1/2 years, she has collected more than $178,000 in cash bonuses -- on top of her $159,840 annual salary.

[...]

The bonuses were paid during a rough patch at the FDA, encompassing a shortage of flu vaccine and embarrassing recalls of the pain-relieving drug Vioxx and malfunctioning heart defibrillators. Throughout, the agency repeatedly insisted that it lacked the resources to conduct adequate food and drug inspections.

The payments, which have attracted bipartisan criticism from lawmakers, offer an unusually detailed look at how the administration has implemented a cash bonus program that Congress expanded in 2004 to attract and retain talented federal employees.

Lawmakers say that at the FDA, many of the bonuses went to the highest-paid officials rather than the scientists, inspectors and doctors most at risk of jumping to the private sector. To critics, the payments bore little relationship to the agency's performance and reputation or to the likelihood that someone might depart. Agency officials disagree and call the program a success.

China Fights Back, Goes After U.S. Meat, But Americans Expected to Consume This Poison

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Frozen poultry products from Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN), the world's largest meat processor, were found to be contaminated with salmonella, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its Web site late Friday.

Other imports barred by China included frozen chicken feet from Sanderson Farms, Inc. tainted with residue of an anti-parasite drug, as well as frozen pork ribs from Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. containing a leanness-enhancing feed additive, the AQSIQ said.

A spokesman for Cargill denied the agency's claims, while officials at Tyson and Sanderson Farms were not immediately available to comment.

[...]