Hucksters. Snake oil salesthingies. Bullshit artists.

From Dr .Kellogg to Dr. Oz to the Wizard of Oz, this is the part that concerns me about marketing microbial food safety.

It has to be verified. Justified. Testified..

Technology is helping with that — DNA barcoding, QR codes, cameras – but regardless of the magical elixer someone is selling, food purchases remain faith-based.

And that’s not good enough.

A Downey man who worked as a consultant to a meat packing company is facing five years in federal prison after pleading guilty this week to falsifying records saying beef was free of the E. coli bacteria in 2010.

Jim Johnson, 67, will be sentenced March 3 by U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin.

Johnson worked for the now-defunct Huntington Meat Packing Company when he created and used false certifications from the USDA stating a ground beef sample had tested negative for E. coli, when in fact lab tests showed some of the meat was contaminated. The company in 2010 wound up recalling 864,000 pounds of meat.

No illnesses were linked to the recalled product.

“The defendant’s lie created a public health hazard, and such conduct will not be tolerated,” U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker said in a statement. “The public is entitled to have confidence in the food that makes it to its tables. The Department of Justice will continue to prosecute aggressively those whose conduct undermines that confidence.”