Fresh From The Grocery: More Vomitous Products
(Be Afraid • Factory Food)
Hamburger, peanuts, pistachios, spinach, tomatoes, hot peppers, cookie dough – what grocery store fare has turned out to be contaminated this time?
Just about everything, as it turns out. For some reason, however, this isn’t considered news by most local outlets so, as I am wont to do, it is presented here as a public service.
Yesterday afternoon, the Food and Drug Administration announced it has discovered Salmonella in an artificial food additive called HVP (hydrolyzed vegetable protein). “Food” manufacturing companies use it to achieve that certain verve in pre-processed dips, salad dressings, soups, “snacks,” “pre-packaged meals,” gravies, chilis, stews and hot dogs.
As of about 5 a.m. today, 57 products that contained HVP made by Basic Food Flavors of Las Vegas had been recalled. Basic Food customers recalling products included the likes of T. Marzetti, Johnny’s Fine Foods, Oak Lake Farms, Follow Your Heart, Trader Joe’s and Castella – so far. Given the widespread use of this additive, you can bet big money this recall will expand by at least a couple hundred products and likely far more.
It wasn’t the FDA or state health inspectors who discovered the Salmonella. That tip came from one of Basic Food’s customers, using a tattle system the FDA has wisely set up.
As for Basic Food Flavors, the contamination dates back to at least last September, according to FDA, which found machinery at the company’s Las Vegas plant was itself contaminated with Salmonella, and thus continued to crank out tainted HVP, batch after batch. This calls into question the company’s sanitation practices, naturally, although information about its past safety inspection history wasn’t immediately available.
Basic Food also has facilities in Texas, Washington, Oregon, California, Illinois, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and seven countries outside the U.S. Hope they’re cleaner than the one in Nevada.
No one has yet been identified as having become sick or dead as a result of the HVP adulteration, however, 245 people in 44 states including mine (Texas) have contracted food poisoning over the past few weeks as a result of Salmonella-contaminated crushed red pepper and prepared meats whose manufacturers used the contaminated pepper in their products.
Most of the meat involved – and we’re talking more than 1.5 million pounds of it – is one or another type of salami made by Daniele International Inc., and some under the Boar’s Head brand. Follow that last link for the complete list.
In Texas, you may have purchased some at Walmart, Kroger, Brookshire Bros. or Albertson. I can’t find information indicating which stores have been selling the recalled dips, salad dressings, etc.
So start checking those kitchen cupboards. And consider – home-made not only tastes better, it (assuming you adhere to basic sanitation and food-preparation practices) also provides the benefit of keeping your family from throwing up so much.
Update: We here in this part of Texas take great pride in our native pecans – in their flavor and our ability to provide them to friends and family as a tasty and healthful dietary additive. We’re also pretty proud of our ability to process and prepare them in a manner that does not make people barf. Thus it is with heavy heart I must report that American Pecan Co. of Yancey has recalled 1-pound bags of pecan pieces because they may be contaminated with Salmonella. The bad pecans were sold in Yancey and by mail to other Texans and to people in New York and Massachusetts, too.
Salmonella originates in the intestines of animals and birds. That means that all the stuff mentioned in all the recalls above was contaminated in one way or another by some kind of animal poop. And then presented for sale for your dining pleasure.
That, as they say, is messed up.
→ B.Dunn, Mar 05, 2010, 06 29 am
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Welcome To The Sausage Factory
(Factory Food • )
The New York Times traces one of the numerous batches of hamburger that has severely injured and killed Americans over the past three years and, guess what? When Cargill sells you choice Angus beef, they sometimes throw in a little ammonia for free:
The frozen hamburgers that the Smiths ate, which were made by the food giant Cargill, were labeled “American Chef’s Selection Angus Beef Patties.” Yet confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria.
If you harbor any doubts that corporations such as Cargill and Tyson aren’t perfectly willing to keep selling meat that sickens or kills people from E. coli O157:H7 contamination if it contributes to their profit margin, then you owe it to your family if not yourself to read this article.
And while you’re at it, check out this list of E.coli hamburger recalls – Big Ag’s hit list from the past two years.
Despite being part of a family that loves grilled hamburgers and spaghetti & meatballs, I have to say that after looking at all the evidence, I’m seriously considering buying my own meat grinder – grandma had one down on her farm – and only cooking hamburger I’ve made myself in order to keep Cargill from shitting in it.
But let us not leave this subject of dangerous and disgusting factory farm production without a nod to the cojone-less U.S. Department of Agriculture, which bears complicity in this fine mess.
→ B.Dunn, Oct 04, 2009, 04 36 am
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Food Safety Reconfirmation: You're Still On Your Own
(Factory Food • )
Grandmas make cookies, grandchildren eat them, and my family is no exception. Plus, like most people, I have an interest in providing my family with wholesome food that doesn’t make them vomit. As such, I grow my own fruit and vegetables, and take care to process and cook food in a clean, safe manner.
Thus also, I follow food recall/poisoning cases with more than a passing interest, especially if the contaminated food is known to have made its way to Texas and consists of things that grandma might include in her cookies. Such as Nestle’s Toll House cookie dough, found recently to have been contaminated with three different types of E. coli bacteria, including the dangerous E. coli O157:H7 which, we learn today, apparently is killing a woman in Las Vegas.
As of one month ago, 80 people in 31 states, including the Nevada woman, were known to have eaten Nestle’s Toll House cookie dough and become infected with E. coli O157:H7. Three of them are from Texas.
After finding out the government had traced E. coli contamination to its cookie dough, Nestle issued a recall of the dough on June 19, manufactured at its Danville, Va., food plant. Less than a month later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded its investigation into the case, saying it had done its very best, but could not find out how in the dickens E. coli (often associated with beef, since the bacteria are commonly found in the stomachs of cattle and other ruminants) could have gotten into the cookie dough.
Nestle said it cleaned up everything in the plant really good, bought fresh ingredients from different vendors, and is churning out Toll House cookie dough again. For my part, I am urging my family and friends to not buy it, ever again.
The FDA may not have been able to figure out how Nestle products became contaminated, but I got a pretty good idea after reading government inspection reports for Nestle’s Danville plant. I went into detail here on July 10, but will just give you the executive summary today:
→ Nestle’s Danville plant has operated for years in a manner inviting numerous potential sources of food contamination. The plant was cited more than once when it was found that tools and other items were being soaked in the same sink where cookie-dough-making employees were supposed to wash their hands, just for starters.
→ Nestle makes meat sauce at the same plant in which it makes the cookie dough. The meat comes from animals known to commonly carry E. coli in their intestinal tract. We are provided no evidence from the government that meat at the Nestle plant was contaminated. We also are provided no evidence that it was not.
→ Nestle stores some of its food ingredients in silos outside the Danville plant. Nothing in government inspection reports indicates the silos and their contents were ever inspected.
→ Inspectors found ice, dripping water or some kind of colorless liquid, insulation material, wood particles, dust and insects on the floor or elsewhere in or near production areas of the plant.
→ Nestle has refused to allow state or federal inspectors to take photos of their findings, review the company’s complaint logs or see its pest control records. Apparently FDA and state inspectors have complied for years with this refusal.
My personal opinion: Nestle cannot be trusted to provide food, at least from this plant, that is safe from contamination. Which is why I ask my family and friends not to buy food products that come from the Nestle Danvill plant, and to think hard about other food products they might be inclined to buy from this company.
Meanwhile, for anyone else still laboring under the misconception that our government is here to make sure the food we buy at the grocery stores is safe for us to eat, I direct your attention to Melon Acres Cantaloupes, distributed from Lakeland, Fla., recalled from stores in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan last Thursday because tests showed at least some of the melons were contaminated with Salmonella.
I bring this recall to your attention, even if you live down here in Texas, to make a point. The company recalled the melons on Aug. 27. But they were shipped to grocery stores Aug. 13 and 14 – two weeks before the recall notice. When people buy melons, they take them home and either eat them immediately or leave them no more than a few days in the refridgerator, because melons don’t keep very long. Which means that people who bought Salmonella-contaminated Melon Acres melons probably already ate them before the recall was even announced.
But here’s the punch line: The U.S. Department of Agriculture tested and found a Salmonella-contaminated Melon Acres melon on Aug. 11 – two days before the first batch of melons was shipped out. It appears that not only did the USDA not immediately notify the company about the findings, it didn’t notify the company at all. Instead, it told the FDA. We are not privy to information telling us exactly how long it took USDA to communicate its findings to FDA. But we do know that the FDA didn’t notify Melon Acres about the contaminated melons until Aug. 21 – more than a week after the melons had been shipped.
This is why it is better for you and your family to either grow and raise your own food or buy it from people you know, who grow or raise it using methods you trust. The lesson is simple: You are your own food safety inspector. So keep your eyes open and pay attention.
→ B.Dunn, Sep 01, 2009, 05 57 am
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Change Blows Through Food Safety System
(Factory Food • Verbatim)
Updated: Congress, specifically Republican House and Ag Committee leaders, have at least temporarily scuttled H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, which would’ve beefed up (OK, pun intended) food inspection procedures and given government agencies more weapons in rooting out contaminants from the food system.
Wealthy agricultural interests really didn’t want that to happen, and used their lobbying dollars to at least temporarily win out, again, over people who’d just like to buy a pound of hamburger without worrying about whether it will make their kids vomit, or worse.
But the bill could come back for a vote later this session, and even if not, indications are that change of some kind is coming in the food inspection arena.
For example, David Acheson writes to say he’s left the Food & Drug Administration, where he served as very visible front man and associate commissioner of foods. Acheson is joining a new private consulting firm called Leavitt Partners, founded by former Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. “My focus will continue to be on food safety and the global food supply chain,” Acheson said.
I’ll be interested to learn more about the firm’s services and client list.
Meanwhile, as of 8:36 p.m., I offer example two from an FDA email:
At the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Marshals today seized tuna salad sandwiches and other food products from Bearden Sandwich Company Inc., doing business as Southern Belle Sandwich Company, in Baton Rouge, La.The seized products, totaling more than $72,000, violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because the products have been prepared, packed, and held under unsanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to the public’s health (the Act uses the term “insanitary” to describe such conditions). In addition, the tuna fish salad sandwiches were processed under conditions that violate Seafood Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulations.
“When FDA investigators find violations inside a company’s facility, we will do what is necessary to keep insanitary and potentially harmful products out of consumers’ hands,” said Michael Chappell, the FDA’s acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. “Companies that are not complying with our laws will be subject to enforcement actions.”
Recent FDA inspections found evidence of widespread and active rodent and insect infestation, filthy conditions, and poor employee practices, such as allowing food-processing utensils to lie on the floor near live insects.
The company distributes products to convenience and retail stores in southern Louisiana; Mobile, Ala.; Montgomery, Ala.; and Crestview, Fla.
Now that’s what I call high quality H2O.
→ B.Dunn, Aug 07, 2009, 07 33 pm
