I know there’s lots of serious stuff going on in Washington, where a bunch of food safety suits are playing advocates for whatever lobby they represent – and they all represent a lobby – and a lot of politicians are spinning stuff way beyond what any data suggests, but has anyone noticed, there’s a lot of poop on produce?

Last night, NewStar Fresh Foods  of Salinas, Calif., issued a voluntary recall for fresh cilantro because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

Back on July 18, Salmonella Oranienburg was found in both North Carolina and Texas on jalapenos and avacados.

And on July 9, 2008, Lucky Green Trading, Inc. of Garden Grove, CA, recalled its Thai Basil , because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. Not the Saintpaul, but still Salmonella.

While the suits are playing armchair quarterback and asking for money, they seem to be completely ignoring the microbiological positives that keep showing up in their product.

At what point will the politicians, crusading under the rubric of food safety, begin to ask, what’s with this don’t test, don’t tell policy?

Cause now that FDA and others are looking, there sure seems to be a lot of poop on produce.

Various suits: Clean up your own backyard before shitting in someone else’s.

And as I’ve written before, when it comes to the safety of the food supply, I generally ignore the chatter from Washington, and I’m increasingly ignoring the chatter from the various usual suspects and hangers on, like academics and others looking to promote their own agenda (many in the food safety world are heading to Columbus, Ohio, for the IAFP meeting and I just really don’t want to be there – and won’t). Will any of this grandstanding actually make food safer? Will fewer people get sick?