Food Safety important to you?

 

There's a small matter of funding.  And of political ideology.  Red states would have more lax regulations for both reasons.  And they'll have fewer, less well equipped medical facilities.

The crazy doesn't stop

 

I suggest you start growing your own, or at least buy local organic.

Under cover of emergency

An event planning company in San Antonio, Texas, known for throwing lavish weddings and high-end conferences, was awarded more than $39 million — one of the largest contracts handed out by USDA under a new program aimed at matching up food banks with surplus produce, meat and dairy.

Also on the list was a company that specializes in trade-related finance and one that sells health and wellness items for travelers.

[...]

The goal is to buy up a variety of excess perishable food items; pack them in easy-to-distribute boxes; and then provide the boxes to food banks and other nonprofits where people in need can pick them up.

But there are concerns about whether some of the companies awarded contracts can pull it off.

  Politico

"No experience necessary" is the Trump administration motto.

[N]umerous industry leaders were not on the list.

“It’s puzzling,” said Michael Muzyk, president of Baldor Specialty Foods, a distributor based in New York. Muzyk, who also serves as chairman of the United Fresh Produce Association, did not apply for a contract, saying he felt the program was ill-designed.

Can't imagine why he would think this administration would put out something "ill-designed".

The rollout of USDA’s fresh food buying initiative comes on the heels of intense political backlash over several large companies getting federal money through the Paycheck Protection Program run by the Small Business Administration.

It’s possible the Agriculture Department wanted to avoid similar criticism by primarily awarding the contracts to small businesses or lesser-known companies. However, some meat giants like Cargill ($7.3 million) and Tyson ($862,000) are on the list. USDA also awarded a huge, $147 million contract to Borden Dairy, a large Dallas-based dairy company that filed for bankruptcy in January.

Why do I get the feeling that a little digging would show people getting the contracts have a connection to the White House?

Other companies that are unfamiliar to those in the food industry have also raised eyebrows. Travel + Well Holdings LLC — a small company based 50 miles north of San Francisco that sells hand sanitizers, lotions and other wellness products in airports and online — was awarded $12 million to distribute fresh fruit and vegetable boxes in the Western region.

[...]

Questions have also been raised about companies on the list with virtually no public information available. For example, POLITICO was unable to identify B.E. Co Inc., which received an $800,000 contract to deliver fresh produce in the mid-Atlantic region.

[...]

When produce industry leaders saw the list of contracts issued Friday night, they were shocked to not recognize many of the names on the list.

Most of the most well-known companies in the business, from large national names like FreshPoint, a division of Sysco, to more regional companies like Keany Produce, based in Maryland, were left off.

Muzyk of Baldor Specialty Foods said it’s clear that some companies applied without understanding what’s really required to purchase, pack and distribute fresh food at the scale the program requires. It requires proper cold storage capacity and trucks as well as food safety practices, particularly for produce which is vulnerable to contamination.

“Under Covid, it’s 10 times more important that you are handling product safely,” he said.

Pshaw!

One of the questions raised by United Fresh and others is whether the businesses selected have what’s known as a PACA license — something USDA likens to a driver's license for operating a produce business. The requirement stems from a Depression-era law aimed at ensuring farmers and others get paid appropriately after they sell a perishable product.

While unknown to the general public, PACA is a huge deal in the produce sector. A company without a PACA license could have a difficult time finding buyers willing to sell it large volumes of produce for the boxes that are supposed to start going out to food banks soon.

Really, though, how long could it take to print up licenses?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Meat eaters take heed

Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) inspectors Anthony Vallone and Jill Mauer told NBC News that they filed whistleblower disclosure forms with the Office of Special Counsel about their concerns with the reduction of the required number of federal inspectors at [meat processing] plants.

"The consumer's being duped," Mauer said, adding that the meat may be more likely to contain feces, sex organs, toenails, bladders and unwanted hair.

Isn't that just a hot dog?

A pilot program for the adjusted rules for pork lines has been implemented at five plants. Five inspectors who worked at these plants talked to NBC News, while four others submitted affidavits with similar concerns.

NBC News notes that none of the inspectors it talked to say they themselves allowed unsafe meat to pass inspection.

  The Hill

Wait, wait. Because there are fewer of them, I get that, but the ones who are left let unsafe meat to pass? How does that happen?

Typically, seven federal inspectors check the meat for defects, but under the new rules, the required number would drop to two or three with more experience but less hands-on time with the meat. The plants’ own employees would be instructed to check the meat directly without any required federal training.

The rules would also eliminate the maximum speed of the meat lines, giving less time for inspections.

"You can't really see very much in that time. So there's a lot of contamination heading out the door," Vallone told NBC News.

The other 35 plants in the U.S. are expected to apply for the new inspection rules. Those 40 plants together produce 92 percent of the pork Americans eat, NBC News reported.

An FSIS spokesperson told The Hill that the pilot program has been in effect in the five plants for nearly two decades without any evidence of increased outbreaks.

The Department of Agriculture told NBC News that federal inspectors are allowed to stop or slow down the line if they find any issues.

Twenty years?  Can we see the figures?

Time to go vegetarian anyway.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.