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NY cracks down on illegal mystery meats
Yahoo AP ^ | 1 December 2006 one hour 26 minutes ago | ADAM GOLDMAN, AP Business Writer

Posted on 12/01/2006 2:33:53 PM PST by shrinkermd

When a food safety inspector walked into a market in Queens, he noticed the store had an interesting special posted on its front window: 12 beefy armadillos. In Brooklyn, inspectors found 15 pounds of iguana meat at a West Indian market and 200 pounds of cow lungs for sale at another market. At a West African grocery in Manhattan, the store was selling smoked rodent meat from a refrigerated display case. An inspector quickly seized a couple pounds of it.

All of it was headed for the dinner table. All of it was also illegal.

Authorities say the discoveries are part of a larger trend in which markets across New York are buying meat and other foods from unregulated sources and selling them to an immigrant population accustomed to more exotic fare.

State regulators have responded by stepping up enforcement, confiscating 65 percent more food through September than they did in all of 2005.

The seizures also cast a spotlight on the eating habits of this ethnically diverse city, where everything from turtles and fish paste to frogs and duck feet make their way onto people's plates.

"At one time or another, we've probably seen about everything," said Joseph Corby, director of the state's Division of Food Safety and Inspection.

In an attempt to stamp out the activity, Corby's agency has ramped up efforts, working with the Food and Drug Administration, to prevent this illicit food from reaching store shelves.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; US: New York
KEYWORDS: armadillo; bigmacaca; cats; dogs; food; gross; iguana; kittycanapes; monkeyburritos; mousebites; possum; possumjerky; rats; realhotdogs; rodent; rodentmeat; starlingsnacks; unusual; watch
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To: digger48

I sure hope that's poison she's pouring in for those little rodents. They need some cats over there.


41 posted on 12/01/2006 3:03:06 PM PST by Lx (Do you like it, do you like it. Scott? I call it Mr. and Mrs. Tennerman chili.)
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To: Solamente

"After 30 seconds of jawing the tough "beef," and not recognizing the bones after a lifetime of eating beef, he tells me I'm eating horse spine. "

If you ever had beef in Italy, more than likely you were eating horse and didn't even know it.


42 posted on 12/01/2006 3:04:40 PM PST by Kirkwood
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To: shrinkermd
I ate armadillo when I was undergoing survival training in the USAF. A mite greasy but ok when you haven't eaten for a day, or so. It tasted like pork.

Bayou natives in Louisiana export thousands of pounds of Nutria meat to France every year. For those not familiar with them, Nutria are large aquatic rat-like creatures.


43 posted on 12/01/2006 3:06:07 PM PST by CholeraJoe (Spork weasels ain't afraid of nuthin' but running out of sardines.)
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To: shrinkermd

Makes possum belly and pigs feet sound like normal fare.


44 posted on 12/01/2006 3:06:08 PM PST by dforest (Don't get fooled, the bigger struggle is still out there, and growing)
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To: WhirlwindAttack
But I still won't eat it if it smells like fish.

< joke that would get me banned >* Never mind. < /joke that would get me banned >

45 posted on 12/01/2006 3:07:38 PM PST by OSHA (I am become OSHA, destroyer of beers.)
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To: Kirkwood

Nothing. But it did freak me out a little, as I am conditioned to eat Brooklyn food, of which encompasses many foods, but not rabbits - geez.


46 posted on 12/01/2006 3:07:54 PM PST by Solamente (Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out...)
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To: ShadowDancer

Need some dinner ideas?


47 posted on 12/01/2006 3:07:56 PM PST by dakine
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To: lowbridge

Once again, 'minorities hardest hit,' right? lol


48 posted on 12/01/2006 3:09:13 PM PST by Continental Soldier
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To: EX52D

There is a reason why Spam is so popular in the Pacific Isles, you know.

Tastes like Long Pork.


49 posted on 12/01/2006 3:10:41 PM PST by MeanWestTexan (Kol Hakavod Lezahal)
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To: Kirkwood

"What's wrong with eating rabbits?"

It has only one stomach and does not have cloven hooves, for starters.


50 posted on 12/01/2006 3:11:30 PM PST by MeanWestTexan (Kol Hakavod Lezahal)
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To: vetvetdoug
Everything from African swine fever and Foot and Mouth disease can be transmitted from foreign meats that are not from approved and reputable sources. Armadillos carry Leprosy, rats...lassa fever and a myriad of togaviruses, reptiles...parasites that will kill humans if eaten even slightly uncooked.

I'm with you. Unfortunately, some think any law at all is an intrusion of rights and freedoms.

51 posted on 12/01/2006 3:11:48 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (What's the one elected position Ted Kennedy has never held? Designated Driver.)
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To: Snoopers-868th

I first heard it in 1962.


52 posted on 12/01/2006 3:11:56 PM PST by Solamente (Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out...)
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To: dakine

Sounds like food from your kitchen.


53 posted on 12/01/2006 3:12:22 PM PST by ShadowDancer (No autopsy, no foul.)
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To: shrinkermd

Seems like one more tool to use in controlling vermin. Every large port city has a rat problem. If there are people around who like to eat rat then let them go to it. Ditto with armadilloes (I understand they can be pests what with all their burrowing). Or raccoons. Stray dogs. Feral cats. Cockroaches (people eat roast grasshoppers - whay not roaches?). This would also allow pest control companies a new revenue source. Instead of poisoning the critters they round them up live and sell them to specialty food stores.


54 posted on 12/01/2006 3:14:42 PM PST by scory
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To: Solamente

I had totally forgotten that song. Got to teach the kids!


55 posted on 12/01/2006 3:15:19 PM PST by conservative cat
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To: Kirkwood

I had horse in Switzerland. I was tough(er), but not that bad.


56 posted on 12/01/2006 3:15:34 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: shrinkermd

On the one hand, in an ideal world, I wouldn't think we'd need the government regulating what kinds of meat you can buy, and who has to prepare them. There have been a few ridiculous stories lately, along the lines of soup kitchens not being allowed to accept donated food unless it had been prepared by a "regulated" facility - thus preventing a church, for example, from cooking up a Thanksgiving dinner and serving it at a homeless shelter.

But the potential for serious disease is real, and it's a good bet that many of these poor immigrants don't have health insurance. So if they do get some strange disease from uncooked whatzit meat, they'll be in the ICU, getting treated on the taxpayer's dollar. Given that situation, and the risk of contaminating safe food supplies that most people prefer, some kind of regulation may make sense here.


57 posted on 12/01/2006 3:17:32 PM PST by Turbopilot (iumop ap!sdn w,I 'aw dlaH)
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To: digger48
That pic reminds me of my buddy who was a Pest Control guy....one day he went into a rental house, and sat at the kitchen table to do his paperwork.

Pavlov kicked in, because 3 rats came out from nowhere and kind of sat up and begged....the tenants kept 'em fed.

58 posted on 12/01/2006 3:19:34 PM PST by ErnBatavia (recent nightmare: Googled up "Helen Thomas nude"....)
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To: shrinkermd

Are armadillos or iguanas endangered? Otherwise, why can't they sell them as food?


59 posted on 12/01/2006 3:21:25 PM PST by Jedi Master Pikachu ( For the Republic.)
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To: shrinkermd

Gee, we can track down "illegal" meat just not "illegal" aliens. What a mess.


60 posted on 12/01/2006 3:21:37 PM PST by zerosix
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