How the government protects us from salmonella

by philg

“A Bug in the System” is a February 2, 2015 New Yorker article about salmonella poisoning caused by America’s industrial chicken production system.

It turns out that the federal government spends your tax dollars on workers at the Centers for Disease Control and the US Department of Agriculture. These workers can figure out which products are making people sick. However they require a tremendous amount of evidence before they can suggest to a manufacturer that products be recalled and these recalls are strictly voluntary.

6 thoughts on “How the government protects us from salmonella”

  1. I grew up on a chicken (egg) farm. Americans want really cheap and plentiful food. The only way to have cheap and plentiful chicken and eggs is to grow chickens by industrial methods in fairly crowded conditions. In these crowded conditions, any infection will spread throughout the flock. If you were willing to pay $5/lb. instead of 99 cents, you could have chicken that was perfectly safe to eat raw. The Japanese have it (at that price) and they can and do eat chicken sushi. But you ain’t gettin’ chicken sushi for 99 cents/ lb. Not gonna happen. So cheap or safe – pick one. You should assume (because it is a pretty safe bet) that ALL the chicken that you buy is contaminated with bacteria.

    Does this mean that you can’t eat chicken (or eggs)? No, not at all. You just can’t eat them raw. If you cook chicken to an internal temp. of 160F, all known infectious bacteria will die and you can’t become sick from them. You also have to handle the raw chicken carefully to avoid cross contaminating your other food (esp. other food that will not be cooked such as salads) with raw chicken juices. This includes NEVER putting chicken in those reusable shopping bags that yuppies love. Put the chicken in its own separate plastic bag and throw the bag away.

  2. Correct but misleading. It’s the FDA that has the legal authority to issue a mandatory recall, under section 206 of the Food Safety Modernization Act. The process is that FISA can try to persuade the vendor that there is an issue that needs a recall. Most vendors are stubborn but cooperative. They have a lot to lose if it is their product causing harm. They have a lot to lose if they do a recall and it’s not their product.

    If persuasion doesn’t work, FISA can contact FDA. FDA can determine that a mandatory recall is needed.

    The lots of work is the work of tracking down the problem needle in the fields of haystacks of food sales data. Establishing the source of a problem is hugely difficult in practice.

  3. Izzie L. writes:
    > This includes NEVER putting chicken in those reusable shopping bags that yuppies love. Put the chicken in its own separate plastic bag and throw the bag away.

    Unfortunately, that does nothing to address the fact that the checkout clerk handled your chicken package and all of your other food.

    Also, *wash* those reusable bags, for goodness’ sake!

  4. >Also, *wash* those reusable bags, for goodness’ sake!

    If you are going to wash and dry the bags every time you use them, it will probably require more energy than it takes to make a plastic bag.

    When I buy chicken at the store, I always bag it in another bag. Many stores now have rolls of bags near the meat for this purpose – otherwise take a vegetable bag.

  5. > If you are going to wash and dry the bags every time you use them, it will probably require more energy than it takes to make a plastic bag.

    Eh, there’s no marginal cost to adding a few grocery bags to a load of laundry.

    I’m more bothered by the lack of effective recyclability of plastic bags, and therefore the cumulative materials and energy used to produce them as single-use items.

    And where do they all go?

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