My worst nightmare: The Beef Mass Recall
[via]
“The President has a whopping new food safety problem: Hundreds of thousands of pounds of contaminated beef in the food chain & little hope of rounding up all the poisoned product…
The June 24 Class 1 (you could die) recall of 41,000+ pounds of beef primal cuts from Colorado firm JBS Swift Beef Company for E coli 0157:H7 contamination has just been expanded to an incredible 421,000 pounds.
It’s incredible from a poundage standpoint, but not incredible from a food safety standpoint. The original USDA advisory noted that the cows slaughtered for the beef had been processed in April, so food safety experts spotted the potential for a massive expansion of the recall the moment they received the first notice. E coli 0157:H7 is an incredibly toxic bacterium which can cause everything from violent stomach upset to permanent renal failure to death. To date, there are 24 illnesses in multiple states, of which at least 18 appear to be associated. And keep in mind that for every one person who is a verified food poisoning victim, the CDC has an algorithm that estimates that there are 35-50 more cases that never get tracked. That’s between 630 and 900 people already ill. The numbers will grow. A “traceback” investigation has begun, run jointly by the Centers for Disease Control and USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. This means investigators will be contacting state and local health authorities to see if there are any more reported illnesses.”
