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Filthy Food

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Mike

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These articles ain't helping folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Filthy Food: Serious Meat Safety Violations
Reporting
Dave Savini CHICAGO (CBS) ― Before you eat another turkey sandwich, chew another piece of steak or bite into another pork chop, consider how that meat is being shipped to your plate.

A four-month CBS 2 investigation uncovered serious food safety handling violations in the way meat is transported. Among the findings: spoiled or thawing meat, cross-contamination and a lack of food inspectors to monitor the way it is handled during the shipping or delivery process.

The investigation found health hazards involving tens of thousands of pounds of beef, poultry and pork headed to local grocery stores, restaurants and warehouses.

"People are so confident that somebody in their government is watching out for their family, and the honest answer is they are not," said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois.

Durbin reviewed surveillance video of tainted transports that included pork thawing and dripping on to fresh produce.

"Even one truckload of meat that is not carefully watched can become a lot problems for a lot families," Durbin said. "The bottom line is, no one is accepting responsibility."

Unsafe temperatures

The food handling investigation started this summer as massive meat recalls for E. coli and salmonella poisoning swept the nation. When meat enters what food inspectors call the danger zone – when temperatures rise above 40 degrees – bacteria can grow and cause food-borne illness. The CBS 2 investigation uncovered repeated temperature violations while meat was in transport. CBS 2 surveillance cameras caught restaurant and grocery store owners shipping meat out of state in trunks of cars, in minivans and non-refrigerated trucks while temperatures outside reached as high as 95 degrees.

Also uncovered in the probe, a lack of food inspectors to investigate after trucks hauling meat are involved in crashes and refrigeration units are destroyed.

In one case, 30,000 pounds of turkey – destined to be turned into deli meat – sat in warm September temperatures for six and a half hours. CBS 2 cameras documented boxes of turkey that were crushed and meat that was exposed, thawing and dripping from the heat.

The load became tainted when the truck struck a viaduct near Chicago's stockyard district. No food inspector was called, as Illinois law mandates. Instead it was transferred to a new refrigerated trailer, cooled down overnight, then shipped the next day to a Chicago warehouse operated by Ashland Cold Storage.

The warehouse was supposed to receive the load for Buddig Foods, a national deli meat company sold in grocery stores. Officials for Buddig and Ashland Cold Storage say they were never told about the crash, or the food exposure and probably wouldn't have known about the incident had they not been warned by CBS2 investigators.

Lack of inspectors

Paul Michalak, executive vice-president for Ashland Cold Storage, says when the load was inspected he found "unacceptable temperatures, adulterated product and damage." The load was rejected, sealed with a lock and sent back to a North Carolina company listed on the boxes as Prestage Foods. Phone calls to Prestage were not returned and questions about what happened to the turkey have not been answered.

In August, a similar situation occurred when another truck hauling more than 40,000 pounds of beef brisket crashed. The truck struck a viaduct, tearing off the trailer's roof and cutting off its refrigeration. The temperature that day reached into the 90s while the load sat for four hours before it was transferred to a new trailer. It was parked overnight and cooled down before delivery the next day.

Once again, no health inspectors were called to the scene. CBS2 contacted city, county, state and federal food and health departments to report the damaged load. The only agency to send an inspector was the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. But that inspector didn't check the load for four days and then only examined a small portion of the meat.

A USDA report of the incident revealed "black specks" were trimmed off some of the beef but 32,000 pounds of the load were never inspected by a government inspector before being sold to the public.

Bureaucratic overlap

"The obvious questions is who is supposed to stop it?" Durbin asked. "The state of Illinois isn't sure, the federal government couldn't answer the question when I asked them. Once it's out the door it's anybody's guess."

Durbin wants more inspections and fewer layers of government in charge of food safety.

"The system we have today is a piece-meal system. Twelve different federal agencies are involved in food safety inspection, 35 different laws, scores of committees on Capital Hill and none of it makes sense."

Other problems uncovered by the CBS 2 investigation involved how meat and vegetables are shipped together illegally by grocery store owners who try to skirt the law to save on shipping costs. One grocery story owner was caught shipping a pig in the flatbed of his pickup truck. He destroyed the pork when confronted by the CBS 2 investigators.

Joe Ortiz, owner of Joe's Fruit Market in Blue Island, said he didn't know he needed a refrigerated truck to haul fresh meat and said he would never do it again. "I am sorry and I apologize ... I have lots of fresh meat for sale that is very good."

Mixed foods

Another example of a major food violation occurred at the popular Fulton Street Meat Market in front of a CBS 2 hidden camera. Jesse Magallon, owner of Jesse's Wholesale Meats was caught on camera loading a non-refrigerated truck with hundreds of pounds of fresh pork on an 85-degree day. The truck was also carrying fresh produce including peppers, mangos and onions and headed for Delavan, Wis.

"It was a big mistake," Magallon said. "I usually deliver to him but that day he said I need it (pork) right away."

Magallon admits it was wrong to sell the meat and then load it onto the non-refrigerated truck.

Inspectors say the truck acted like an oven, thawing the pork and causing its juices to spill all over the produce.

Four hours after leaving Chicago, the truck arrived at its destination – a grocery store. CBS 2 notified health inspectors and warned the driver an inspector was on his way. That's when the truck driver took off and tried to hide. But the inspector called police, who stopped him several miles away.

The Wisconsin food inspector climbed into the truck, took various temperature readings and found the meat had reached 65 degrees. Jake Pfiefer, an inspector for the Wisconsin Department of Public Health said that was 25 degrees above safe limits. The inspector found numerous violations including thawing meat juices that were cross contaminating fresh produce and cases of yogurt at temperatures near 80 degrees. The yogurt, meat and contaminated produce were immediately thrown into a garbage bin and destroyed with bleach.

"This instance is probably one in a hundred that occurs probably once or twice a day," Pfiefer said. He added that more inspectors are needed to search for illegal food transports throughout the country. "We never would have known about this had (CBS 2) not been doing your surveillance."

CBS 2 Investigative Producer Michele Youngerman contributed to this report.
 
You know this thread gives me the shivers. Just think about food in your own home. I think mine lands just about everywhere it shouldnt. I mean take a sandwich for example. I dont always use a cutting board ) OOOOO GROSSS JUDITH) I have a cat... (I'm gunna hurl...) counter connected to the cat feet, cat feet connected to the cat box, cat box connected to the o dear I'm gunna pass out.... You see where I am going with this?? I mean if we have lapses of cleanliness in our own homes, what one earth do we think is happening from process to our tables...
 
These aren't problems that can be regulated away easily either.

You can't have an inspector for every food service worker.
 
Common sense goes a long way.

How many times have you seen a guy zipping up his pants as he exits the mens room?Yuck, he didnt wash.And ladies do it too, makes me want to gag.Then they go back and shake hands pick up menus etc.

My husband complains that I am too anal about the cleanliness of my house especially my kitchen but I want my family to be safe.I am sure they are tired of me saying wash you hands.

Maybe everyone should think of the food they are handling as what they would eat themselves.

Worse yet producers are always blamed in the end and pay the price.
 
Judith said:
You know this thread gives me the shivers. Just think about food in your own home. I think mine lands just about everywhere it shouldnt. I mean take a sandwich for example. I dont always use a cutting board ) OOOOO GROSSS JUDITH) I have a cat... (I'm gunna hurl...) counter connected to the cat feet, cat feet connected to the cat box, cat box connected to the o dear I'm gunna pass out.... You see where I am going with this?? I mean if we have lapses of cleanliness in our own homes, what one earth do we think is happening from process to our tables...

Judith, you should be more careful!!! :wink:

The big difference, Judith, is that in food preparation places, the germs that are allowed on the food have time to multiply and get dangerous. If you have a little dirty counter (or probably more common on your sponge you use to clean your counter) the few germs left on the counter are pretty meaningless unless they have a chance to get food and grow into large numbers.

While you bring this up, what about the 5 second rule?

I would still take common sense measures like not using the kitty scoop to measure the sugar in your tea and such. :lol: :lol:
 
Um the five second rule only applies if someone SEES you :lol: Besides I have this feeling my floor is cleaner than the counter. I rarely see that fluffy hooligan on the floor . He travels high in an effort to thwart the evil weiner dog :twisted:
 
Actually our bodies are well equipped to deal with these germs...if we provided it with the proper nutrition. Notice that the very young(under developed immune system) and the very old(weakened immune system) are most susceptible. Saturated animal fats are essential to a strong immune system!!!!
 

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