Safe Food_ Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism - Marion Nestle [171]
My conclusion: we have only one food supply for pets, people, and farm animals, and it is global. In researching the book, I uncovered a long history of fraudulent use of melamine in fish and animal feed, as well as in pet food in modern China. In Pet Food Politics, I argued that safety problems with pet food must be addressed immediately. Otherwise, we must expect similar problems with human food. Hence the book’s subtitle, The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine.
Nonetheless, even I was taken aback when melamine turned up in Chinese infant formula and caused at least 300,000 illnesses, 50,000 hospitalizations, and six deaths. Chinese manufacturers so commonly used melamine as an adulterant that investigators discovered the chemical in a vast array of milk drinks, coffee drinks, crackers, cookies, and chocolates distributed throughout Asia and elsewhere.30
The pet food and infant formula scandals induced the Chinese government to punish perpetrators, sometimes with death sentences, and to enact new food safety laws. Pet food companies initiated routine testing for melamine. The usual calls for regulation followed. Yet two years later, a government review of the FDA’s handling of the pet food recalls merely suggested that the agency consider seeking legislative action to give it more effective methods for dealing with recalls.31
2007: Ground Beef Products ( E. coli O157:H7). This particular recall focused attention on the devastation to affected individuals. It resulted in a $100 million lawsuit filed against Cargill on behalf of an affected young dancer, Stephanie Smith, whose travails were covered extensively by the New York Times and other media. But it also focused attention on the meat industry’s resistance to pathogen testing as well as to its cozy relationships with USDA inspectors.
As explained in chapter 1, hamburger is typically made from trimmings from multiple animals (sometime hundreds) slaughtered in any number of states. To ensure safety, companies ought to test for pathogens but have little incentive to do so. If they test and find pathogens, they land in “a regulatory situation.” As a company official explained to the New York Times: “One, I have to tell the government, and two, the government will trace it back to them [the slaughterhouse]. So we don’t do that.” The USDA, in turn, uses a “restrained approach” to regulation. A USDA official said his agency has the power to require pathogen testing but does not use it. Why not? Because the USDA also takes the companies’ needs into consideration: “I have to look at the entire industry, not just what is best for public health.”32
2008: Ground Beef (Mad Cow Disease). Sometimes, ground beef induces revulsion as well as illness. The “largest to date” recall record set by pet foods did not last long. In February 2008, the Hallmark/Westland Beef Packing Company recalled more than 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef products produced over a two-year period. An employee of the Humane Society infiltrated the plant and secretly filmed a video (“WARNING: Contains graphic footage”) displaying the slaughter of “downer” cows for food as well as other violations of USDA rules.33
Older, nonambulatory cattle are at risk for mad cow disease, or BSE (discussed in chapter 8). The USDA secretary said, “It is extremely unlikely that these animals were at risk for BSE because of the multiple safeguards; however, this action is necessary because plant procedures violated USDA regulations.” A particular source of concern was that Hallmark/Westland produced ground meat for federal school meals. Although BSE had never been found in U.S. cows, the incident demonstrated links between inhumane treatment of animals and public health.34
It also highlighted inadequacies in the USDA’s meat inspection system. Insiders complained that inspectors who cite slaughterhouse violations