For years, the US Department of Agriculture has been testing meat and poultry, but their policy allowed meat to hit the market before test results taking a maximum of 48 hours came back. Which was usually just enough time to have plenty of people buy and eat contaminated meat before a recall was issued. Realizing this is probably not the best regulatory policy, the USDA announced yesterday that they're proposing a new requirement that would prohibit meat and poultry producers from sending their products to grocery stores until contamination test results came back clear. So, what took them so long?
Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Elisabeth Hagen said, "We believe this will result in fewer products with dangerous pathogens reaching store shelves and dinner tables. In addition, by testing and holding at U.S. points-of-entry, the Food Safety and Inspection Service will also strengthen safety efforts focused on imported food - offering an additional safeguard to American consumers." However, the measure would be for meat and poultry products only, so your peanut butter is still at risk.
Meat and poultry production companies seem to be on board with the testing; Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for Tyson Foods, told the WSJ, "While we don't typically favor more government regulation, we believe it makes sense in this case to mandate 'test and hold' for the whole industry." The USDA writes, "FSIS believes that 44 of the most serious recalls between 2007 and 2009 could have been prevented if this procedure had been in place." And don't worry, you can still freak out about contamination with the FDA.
