Tag Archives: Meat

Walmart and Sam’s Club to require enhanced beef safety measures

Posted on by
Reply

An ermerging trend in several mainstream media stories of the past year is that some of the biggest food suppliers – Costco, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Burger King – have the best food safety requirements. Quality is a different issue and largely based on personal preference and lifestyle choices. Cool. But there are some microbiological basics that food safety types have to pay attention too.

Frank ‘food safety culture’ Yiannas, vp for food safety at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. said today the company will implement additional beef safety measures designed to further protect customers against foodborne illnesses.

The new process controls standards and goals are additions to a food safety program that already requires ground beef suppliers to test for E.coli O157:H7 and achieve prevention-based certification against one of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) internationally recognized standards.

Yiannas said,

“In light of recent beef recalls, we determined it was prudent to require an additional layer of protection for our customers.”

The new program requires Walmart and Sam’s Club beef suppliers to implement controls that would significantly reduce potential contamination levels and validate that the measures they’ve implemented are effective through specialized testing.

Suppliers who do not operate slaughter houses must be in compliance with the new standard by June 2011. For beef slaughterhouse suppliers, there is a two-step approach with the first step to be completed by June 2011 and the second by June 2012.

Walmart and Sam’s Club will work closely with beef suppliers to ensure that the new requirement is implemented without additional cost to customers.
 

How I buy meat – Powell hazardous waste version

Posted on by
1

A blogger named Jenny called me last week and asked me how I buy meat.

So this is what I told her as documented in her blog, Dinner A Love Story.

My first guest is Doug Powell, associate professor, food safety, Dept. Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, Kansas State University and the father of five girls. His entertainingly combative barfblog.com regularly takes Whole Foods and (no!!!) Michael Pollan to task.

So Doug Powell, how do you buy meat?

“I go to the biggest supermarket I can find — Dillons, Walmart, Krogers. I’ll buy a whole chicken at Dillons for some ridiculously low price, like 99 cents a pound. Because I know they have quality control measures in place to reduce microbial loads before they get in the store. I would never shop at any of those places like Whole Foods. What they are peddling is complete nonsense from a safety point a view. Whole Foods is so concerned about being natural and whatever else that they don’t pay attention to the basics like cross-contamination. They’re sloppy about that.

“It’s not about lovingly raising an animal which I’m sure lots of farmers do. It’s about testing. In separate USA Today stories last year, both Costco and McDonalds were highlighted for their rigorous safety standards. I’m not talking quality here, I’m talking safety. Given the number of things they serve, those places can’t afford to screw up.

“When I buy ground beef, I treat it like hazardous waste, and make burgers mixed with about 20 per cent ground turkey. A butcher grinding meat in front of me means nothing from a safety perspective. If there’s poop on the outside, it’s now on the inside, which is why I always — always — use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer to make sure any food is properly cooked. There’s just too many people out there getting sick.”
 

The problem may be at home — bomb at meat plant edition

Posted on by
Reply

Meatingplace reported a homemade bomb found in an employee locker at a Hormel plant in Fremont, Neb., was removed and diffused on Monday, according to the Nebraska State Patrol.

My Dr. Oz friend and public health sanitarian consultant, Roy Costa, wrote to say that most food facilities practice some type of security in their food operations, but it is most likely a well developed program when facilities are under third party audit criteria. The voluntary requirements for food security are standardized across the industry and include barrier protection to the premises (fencing) secured entries, documented visitor logs, identification badges for employees, and some type of visitor identification. Incoming goods and outgoing goods must be under protection from malicious contamination in secured areas. Training is required in food security for both management and employees.

Roy says that when near events like this occur, it becomes clear that the internal saboteur and not the external saboteur is usually the problem. Whether it be bombs, fires, poisonous substances, or pranks, the perpetrator is almost always an employee.
 

Canada tells old people to cook deli meats two years after 22 died

Posted on by
Reply

Almost two years after 22 elderly Canadians died from eating Maple Leaf deli meats, the Canadian government has decided to remind Canadians of the importance of food safety for older adults.

Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency tell older Canadians they should separate, clean, chill and cook, and make sure to cook hot dogs and deli meats until they are steaming hot before eating them.

The best the 6-figure bureaucrats who came up with this – and there were many – could do was borrow piping hot from the U.K.?

So is that standard advice now for aged-care facilities across Canada, where the staff dieticians were completely clueless about the potential for deli-meats to be contaminated with listeria? Is this Maple Leaf-sanctioned advice? Will it appear on warning labels for vulnerable populations, including pregnant women?

Listeria spike in Ontario triggers deaths and hospitalizations – who knew what when?

Posted on by
2

Robert Cribb of the Toronto Star is reporting tonight that two Ontarians were hospitalized — and another two deaths are being investigated — in relation to a listeria outbreak traced to a Toronto deli meat manufacturer.

Its part of a dramatic spike in listeria cases in Ontario since January that has renewed concerns about the country’s food safety system 18 months after 22 Canadians died in the Maple Leaf tragedy (fiasco – dp).

Packages of prosciutto cotto cooked ham and mild cacciatore salami made by Siena Foods Ltd. have been targeted as a possible cause in the outbreak.

The company’s salami was recalled in December and the ham was recalled early Friday. Both were sold to delis, grocery stores, specialty food stores and supermarkets after January 11.

“We are using a variety of different methods to … prevent any further exposure to this product by the public,” said

Siena officials did not respond to interview requests Friday.

Since January, the province has had 14 confirmed listeria cases (six in Toronto) — well beyond the eight that is typically expected for this point in the year, said Dr. Arlene King, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health.

Two Torontonians were sickened by a strain of the pathogen that matches with the Siena meat, hospitalized and are now recovering, she said. At least seven people across the province have been hospitalized since January from listeria.

Two Ontarians died during the same time the tainted Siena meat was in the marketplace, she confirmed. But provincial officials are still investigating whether there is a direct connection between those deaths and the company’s products.

Rick Holley, a microbiologist and food safety expert at the University of Manitoba and a consultant with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said,

“I haven’t seen improvement. We haven’t seen any reduction, in my view, of the risk. We’re not doing foodborne illness surveillance the way we should. I’m not encouraged that, materially, we’ve got the kind of buy-in by industry we need to move forward with confidence.”

Doug Powell, a Canadian food safety expert at Kansas State University, said,

“There’s clearly some bad stuff going at that plant. I would like (health officials) to be clear about what they know, what they don’t know and what they’re doing about it. I don’t know how these Canadian health types are allowed to operate the way they do and not say anything.”

Timeline:
December 21, 2009: The CFIA recalls Siera salami
March 3: The ministry began a detailed investigation with local health units to identify source of the illness
March 5: The ministry released an “enhanced surveillance directive” to health units to identify any other cases
March 9: The ministry was notified of the test results of food samples taken from one of the two cases of hospitalized victims. The genetic fingerprint from the prosciutto was an exact match to the salami and a sample taken from one of the infected people.
March 11: The CFIA recalls Siera cooked ham

Is home butchering about economics, safety, or control? Should it be illegal to provide that meat to friends?

Posted on by
4

Mark Tijssen, a major in the Canadian Forces, belongs to a group of churchgoers who butcher their own meat to, as they say, ensure its safety.

Apparently, Tijssen’s house had been under surveillance for several days last November before officers from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ottawa police stopped a car leaving the property and confiscated 18 kilograms of pork. Tijssen and a friend had jointly bought a pig and slaughtered it.

Now, Tijssen will appear in court next month to face charges of running an unlicensed slaughterhouse, failing to have an animal inspected both before and after slaughter, and distributing meat. If found guilty, Tijssen could face up to $100,000 in fines.

In the Canadian province of Ontario, it is permissible to butcher an animal if the food is for the person’s own family and none of the meat leaves the property where it was butchered. This allows farmers to raise their own food. It is against the law, however, to distribute the meat to anyone else.

Ron Doering, an Ottawa lawyer and former president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, told the Ottawa Citizen Ontario’s rules on butchering and distribution of meat for personal use go far beyond those of other provinces. Saskatchewan, for example, has no provincial regulation and Newfoundland and Labrador has few regulations, while Quebec and British Columbia more closely resemble Ontario’s inspection regime.

Tijssen said he has butchered his own meat for years and cuts food costs by occasionally buying and butchering animals with a group of friends from his church. The members also have little faith in the safety of commercial meat products.

Brent Ross, a spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said the ministry moderates its enforcement of meat handling rules for religious or ethnic reasons, for example, when Muslims slaughter animals for religious reasons.

Tijssen and his friends from Faith Anglican Church say religion plays no part in their butchering practices. They just want economical and safe meat.
 

Recipe for cat, the other white meat, gets cooking show host suspended

Posted on by
Reply

What better way to celebrate World Cat Day on Feb. 17 (tomorrow, who knew?) than to suggest recipes to prepare the other white meat for deliciousness.

ANSA.it is reporting that the co-host of a popular Italian daytime cooking show was suspended on Monday for extolling the delights of cat meat during an episode last week.

Beppe Bigazzi, a food expert on La Prova del Cuoco (The Cooks’ Challenge), enraged animal rights experts around the country when he gave advice on preparing ”tender, white cat meat” in a portion of the show usually reserved for advice about nutrition.

The Italian Animal Protection Agency said they were ”satisfied” with the timeliness of Bigazzi’s suspension in view of World Cat Day on February 17.

While cat meat is illegal in Italy, it is a popular winter dish throughout China and much of Southeast Asia.
 

Better than Viagra? China may ban dog and cat meat

Posted on by
Reply

China’s National People’s Congress is expected to consider banning a centuries-old culinary tradition: the consumption of dog and cat meat.

The Times of London reports that a proposed law calls for imposing fines, jail time or both for anyone caught eating or selling dog or cat meat. Dog meat is also known as “fragrant meat” and is thought to boost energy and male virility. It’s also a delicacy.

Alternative to needle tenderization, Ohio man accused of urinating on Wal-Mart meat

Posted on by
Reply

From the you’ve-gotta-go-when-you-gotta-go department, CantonRep.com reports that police arrested a Canton man accused of walking into a local Wal-Mart store about 1:30 a.m. Friday and urinating on the counter containing steaks.??

Jail records said the man entered the store, walked to the steak counter and began urinating on the food, causing more than $600 in damage to the meat and surrounding counters.?? He remained in the jail later Friday, held in lieu of $25,000 bond, facing charges of felony vandalism and disorderly conduct.
 

Texas woman calls 911 when husband refuses to eat dinner

Posted on by
Reply

Continuing the decline into idiocracy, a Texas woman faces charges after calling 911 30 times over six months, most recently to complain that her husband wouldn’t eat his dinner.

Last Friday, the woman allegedly made a pair of calls to 911, including a hang-up and another where a woman was heard screaming.

Police were dispatched to the residence and officer Paul Gonzales said police were told by her that "her husband did not want to eat his supper." A police report said the 53-year-old woman was also yelling "about things that happened two weeks ago."