Why so many food recalls?

bobcat

bobcat

Well-known Member
Location
Northern Calif
Just read that 10 million pounds of meat are being recalled.
It seems there have been so many recalls lately from deli meats, to eggs, cheeses, vegetables, and other packaged products.
What's going on?
Is the food industry getting more careless, or food inspectors getting better at catching it, or an overabundance of caution for fear of lawsuits, or are we getting more careless at preparing and eating it?
 

My first thought was that it's the same for meat packing as it is for any corporation; Cost cutting shortcuts to increase profit. Keeping a food preparation area clean requires labor and does little to increase output.
 
JustDave said:
My first thought was that it's the same for meat packing as it is for any corporation; Cost cutting shortcuts to increase profit. Keeping a food preparation area clean requires labor and does little to increase output.
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Perhaps you're right. That may be it.
I guess I wonder though that if they have to do large recalls, wouldn't it cost less to keep them from happening in the first place? Maybe not though. Hourly wages and benefits can add up quickly.
 
Looks like tighter controls are needed at the processing facilities, but for a consumer, never trust that it is being done. Especially be sure to thoroughly cook ground meat (Beef, chicken, and turkey) because the salmonella that was only on the surface before, now gets mixed right into the product.

Also be careful of contamination of surfaces being used in the kitchen, as well as utensils. It's not fair that the burden is on us, but it's still necessary, so it can save you from a lot of grief.
 
I think a lot is in play.

Standards are higher in some things, particularly because populations reshuffling and global trade has introduced foods to populations that are not equipped to handle them. That's led to a lot of people consuming things that they "have allergies to" which is probably digestive and immune system inadequacies for those "novel" foodstuffs. Just look at the issues with dairy, wheat, and on and on and on. The same is probably in play for other things like the normal microflora common in many foodstuffs, fresh or processed.

Baby can't eat steak, so we all get pablum.

There is also the "Marching Morons" phenomenon, where people who are incompetent have been forced into many work roles "for inclusion," along with a growing general incompetence. To an ever greater extent we're becoming a "pass/fail" society where nobody is allowed to fail. We just mainstream the incompetent.

American polymath legend Steve Allen - Wikipedia christened this 'Dumbth" in the 1980s. But in an anti-intellectual culture few even remember him.

Then we have the possibility of industrial manipulation of the food supply. Economic control? Social Engineering? Political management of the population? Forcing the necessity of global food trade? It's easy to be suspicious with so much going on behind closed doors and in the hands of fewer giant corporations each day.
 
@dilettante …your graph ends at 2010. Population in 1960 was about 179 million, now about 329 million. Techniques have changed. Interesting to see that food assistance has remained flat…there are those who believe otherwise….
I think the very cost of having usda inspectors is way higher. Labs cost money.
 
Muskrat said:
@dilettante …your graph ends at 2010. Population in 1960 was about 179 million, now about 329 million. Techniques have changed. Interesting to see that food assistance has remained flat…there are those who believe otherwise….
I think the very cost of having usda inspectors is way higher. Labs cost money.
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It isn't my graph. Feel free to hunt for one that contains more recent figures.
 
I know it is not yours silly. The graph is also not very detailed. Makes it pretty hard to know much of value at all.
 

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