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Beef deemed unfit for human consumption prompts recall

February 12, 2014

cow22A California company is recalling 8.7 million pounds of beef distributed through a slaughterhouse that processed diseased and unhealthy animals without a full federal inspection, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Saturday. [ABC]

The Petaluma-based Rancho Feeding Corp. is working to compile a list of companies affected by the recall, its owner, Robert Singleton, told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat on Monday. The recalled beef products were processed from Jan. 1, 2013 through Jan. 7, 2014 and shipped to distribution centers and retail stores in California, Florida, Illinois and Texas.

Recalled meats deemed unfit for human consumption include beef carcasses, oxtail, liver, cheeks, tripe, tongue and veal bones. Last month, the Rancho Feeding Corp. recalled more than 40,000 pounds of meat products produced on Jan. 8 that also didn’t undergo a full inspection.

 


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Don’t they inspect themselves? Who would do this?


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For the benefit of SlowerFaster and Sarah Bellum: The FDA was originated in 1906 by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt.


So what does that do to your arguments that Republicans don’t want federal food inspections and regulations so everyone can die?


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That’s a straw man argument, and you know it. Nobody said that the producer deliberately set out to poison anyone. What I am saying is that libertarians are willing to jeopardize public safety in the name of personal freedom. Just to show you how much things have changed, Roosevelt also thought of himself as a progressive and signed the Federal Meat Inspection Act into law out of valid concern for public health.


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NO beef is fit for human consumption.


— PETA


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Where’s the Beef?????


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More information can be found at the Sonoma Press Democrat’s second article. I also notice it wasn’t until half way down or more that actual interviews with Ranchers who used the processing plant were mentioned. They kind of contradict what the FDA seems to be trying to imply.


One year of beef processing is significant. Still, even in this second article, no illnesses, etc. were reported – so I’m approaching this cautiously.


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They aren’t skirting any rules. THERE AREN’T ENOUGH FEDERAL INSPECTORS. Why? Because the leadership of this country doesn’t want to spend the money on inspecting your food. Yea, it makes me feel sick too.


There are so few federal inspectors that they often just rely on OSHA to perform these inspections. When the FDA head presents his budget request to congress, he (as an appointee of the president) is told what to say by that president.


In short, your health is being compromised by the federal government.


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The uber-libertarian, teabagger, Republican response is to have no government or regulations…let the ‘free market’ decide.


On the plus side, we can hope that many in those anti-civilization groups have been eating those burgers !


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Pssst. Hey I know you’re slow(er) and all, but did you happen to notice that it was the COMPANY who “voluntarily halted operations, as it tries to track down all of its beef shipments over the past year” (from linked ABC source)?


Didn’t think so.


Hate to break it to you, but the ODDS of a Government Agency even LOOKING at something you eat are longer than you winning the Lotto. I know, I know, it’s outside your comfort zone…


The FDA inspections are a joke, and anyone who’s ever worked in the food processing industry will tell you that (anonymously, of course). While I would not want the FDA abolished or anything, it is absolutely FOOLISH to think they are making things “safe” for human consumption.


That free market you are so scared of? That is what drove this company to do this. They reported it to the FDA. Period. Your ignorance of how the FDA and free markets work is astonishing.


…at least you got to say “teabagger” and whatever other childish names you think make you look well-informed! Congrats on that one, right?


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Nothing good ever comes to those who wish ill will on others.

Keep calm and have a nice cuppa tea….


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Based on the number of “thumbs down” responses you’ve received, I’m guessing that our local “true conservatives” judge it better to die with the freedom of a tainted burger than live under the tyranny of government meat inspection.The invisible hand of the market is raising its’ middle finger to you.


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money doesn’t talk it swears,


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Unless of course it happens to one of their own! Then it becomes a no holds barred rush to their attorneys to not only sue the perpetrator but the government as well for not doing their job.


Just Sayin’…


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So, what happens next? It sounds as if this company knowingly shipped tainted products to retailers, which in turn was sold to the general public. If you or I did something we knew to be harmful to others we’d be in front of a judge, and if serious enough put into jail.


The “Equal Justice For All” engraved on the front of the United States Supreme Court building should have an asterisk affixed to it with the following engraved behind it: “Sorry, What That Really Means Is Only For Those Who Can Afford It.”


Just Sayin’…


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Maybe. After reading this story and the linked ABC story, it looks like the Feds didn’t get to inspect, so the product automatically became unfit for human consumption.


It also stated, “Singleton told the Press Democrat the company undertook the recall out of an abundance of caution and regrets any inconvenience to customers” – which tells me they didn’t play along with the Fed and this is the price to pay.


I did not see or hear about any illness or such that would say the meat is, in fact, tainted. One would think that shipping the so-called “unfit” meat for an entire year that there would be traceable illnesses. Maybe that is forthcoming, I do not know, but it was not reported by the Feds or the press (or the company).


I’m guessing they just wanted to cut the corner of dealing with the bureaucracy that is the FDA (as ALL importers of food get to do – like China!) and they got caught (or were about to be caught). Still, some heads should roll. Even though it is an unfair “non-free” market, they must comply with the rules or move offshore (like many others) and avoid the FDA nonsense altogether.


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The owners of a business that distributes massive amounts of food products (particularly meat) and who skirt the federal food inpection rules should be jailed and fed their own products !!!!


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They probably do eat their own products. Believe it or not, it is really bad for business to kill one’s customers. I know that is a radical thought, and it’s easier to think that one is so greedy that they’d poison and kill (even though we have ZERO reports of that from this case so far) their customers to make a buck. It’s easier for many who do not want to do the hard work of applying logic and thought to an event.


As for people who “skirt the federal food inspection” – have you ever actually seen what a federal food inspection consists of? The vast bulk of it is VISUAL. Can you SEE a micro-organism? Most all of the actual “send it to a lab and test it” is done BY THE COMPANY itself. Again, the whole “don’t kill your customers = profit” equation.


I might be off on this, but I do not put a lot of stock into FDA “inspections” of our food. FDA is more focused on pharma shake-downs and such.


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