NEWS: meat processors, USDA, salmonella, and litigation

[Guest guest]

Meat Processors to USDA: What's Wrong with a Little Salmonella for the Young'ns?

 

In an infuriating, but altogether believable scenario, a federal judge in Dallas

has upheld a lawsuit filed by beef manufacturer, forcing the U.S. Department of

Agriculture to allow the company, Supreme Beef, which has failed salmonella

contamination tests three times over eight months, to continue selling their

product. Supreme Beef supplies up to 45 percent of the ground beef used in the

national school lunch program, and it also supplies beef to Wal-Mart.

 

On Tuesday, November 30, the USDA had withdrawn its inspectors from the Supreme

Beef Processors plant in Dallas, effectively making it illegal to sell beef in

interstate commerce. The same day, Supreme Beef filed a lawsuit and Federal

Judge A. Joe Fish, agreed that withdrawing the inspectors could cause

irreparable harm to the company, and he issued a temporary restraining order

instructing the department to return inspectors to the plant, pending a December

10 hearing.

 

In it's lawsuit against the USDA, Supreme Beef contends that the government has

no authority to regulate salmonella, claiming that, " because salmonella is not

an adulterant and because salmonella is destroyed during normal cooking, the

presence of salmonella is not a public safety issue. "

 

Food safety experts say that the outcome of this case could affect whether the

USDA is forced to return to methods like the “poke-and-sniff” system that was

used during the beginning of the century, a time when meat was not inspected for

bacteria. Carol Forest Tuckerman, director of the Food Policy Institute of the

Consumer Federation of America said, " If the company wins this case, we'll go

back to a system where inspectors look for bumps and bruises that have no

relationship to the bacteria that make people sick. "

 

According to Supreme Beef's own documents, included in its lawsuit against the

USDA, as many as 20 percent of the samples in three sets of tests contained

salmonella. Salmonella is a disease-causing bacteria that can result in mild to

severe gastrointestinal distress, or, with immune-compromised individuals, even

death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently estimated that

there more than a million cases of food-borne salmonella poisoning a year and

556 deaths.

 

Also on November 30, the Agricultural Marketing Service, which operates the

school lunch program, canceled its contract with Supreme Beef on November 30

because the company's beef did not meet the Agriculture Department's minimum

standards.

 

Despite all this, Supreme Beef is still legally selling their product to other

outlets across the country. The moral of the story? Perhaps in this litigious

country of ours, the financial health of a corporation is more of a priority

than the physical health of American consumers. What else could one infer from

Judge Fish's ruling?

 

Meanwhile, Vegan Street would like to take a moment to say that even when a

hamburger isn't crawling with salmonella, E.coli and a host of other invisible

creepy-crawlies, it still ain't safe.

 

http://www.veganstreet.com/news/leadstory.html

--

 

 

_____________

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[Guest guest]

*giggles* oh, you mean people could actually get sick and die from eating

meat? *evil grin*

 

Vikas

 

 

 

anji b [vegan]

Wednesday, December 15, 1999 2:06 PM

 

NEWS: meat processors, USDA, salmonella, and

litigation

 

 

" anji b " <vegan

 

Meat Processors to USDA: What's Wrong with a Little Salmonella for the

Young'ns?

 

In an infuriating, but altogether believable scenario, a federal judge in

Dallas has upheld a lawsuit filed by beef manufacturer, forcing the U.S.

Department of Agriculture to allow the company, Supreme Beef, which has

failed salmonella contamination tests three times over eight months, to

continue selling their product. Supreme Beef supplies up to 45 percent of

the ground beef used in the national school lunch program, and it also

supplies beef to Wal-Mart.

 

On Tuesday, November 30, the USDA had withdrawn its inspectors from the

Supreme Beef Processors plant in Dallas, effectively making it illegal to

sell beef in interstate commerce. The same day, Supreme Beef filed a lawsuit

and Federal Judge A. Joe Fish, agreed that withdrawing the inspectors could

cause irreparable harm to the company, and he issued a temporary restraining

order instructing the department to return inspectors to the plant, pending

a December 10 hearing.

 

In it's lawsuit against the USDA, Supreme Beef contends that the government

has no authority to regulate salmonella, claiming that, " because salmonella

is not an adulterant and because salmonella is destroyed during normal

cooking, the presence of salmonella is not a public safety issue. "

 

Food safety experts say that the outcome of this case could affect whether

the USDA is forced to return to methods like the “poke-and-sniff” system

that was used during the beginning of the century, a time when meat was not

inspected for bacteria. Carol Forest Tuckerman, director of the Food Policy

Institute of the Consumer Federation of America said, " If the company wins

this case, we'll go back to a system where inspectors look for bumps and

bruises that have no relationship to the bacteria that make people sick. "

 

According to Supreme Beef's own documents, included in its lawsuit against

the USDA, as many as 20 percent of the samples in three sets of tests

contained salmonella. Salmonella is a disease-causing bacteria that can

result in mild to severe gastrointestinal distress, or, with

immune-compromised individuals, even death. The Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention recently estimated that there more than a million cases of

food-borne salmonella poisoning a year and 556 deaths.

 

Also on November 30, the Agricultural Marketing Service, which operates the

school lunch program, canceled its contract with Supreme Beef on November 30

because the company's beef did not meet the Agriculture Department's minimum

standards.

 

Despite all this, Supreme Beef is still legally selling their product to

other outlets across the country. The moral of the story? Perhaps in this

litigious country of ours, the financial health of a corporation is more of

a priority than the physical health of American consumers. What else could

one infer from Judge Fish's ruling?

 

Meanwhile, Vegan Street would like to take a moment to say that even when a

hamburger isn't crawling with salmonella, E.coli and a host of other

invisible creepy-crawlies, it still ain't safe.

 

http://www.veganstreet.com/news/leadstory.html

--

 

 

_____________

Free email services provided by http://www.goodkarmamail.com

 

 

powered by OutBlaze

 

 

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