Posted on 08/03/2007 7:37:12 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
Customers dining on surf and turf at a local restaurant may find themselves feasting on steak and a handful of breaded shrimp that took wildly disparate paths through a disjointed American food-safety system.
The steak came from a cow that was examined by a government inspector before and after it was slaughtered. The shrimp most likely were not inspected. The steak probably came from an American producer. The shrimp likely came from overseas, perhaps from one of several Asian countries that have been criticized for sloppy practices in raising seafood.
The disparity is a function of America's 100-year-old food-safety system, under which the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration divvy up the food pyramid. The USDA regulates meat, a practice that dates to 1906, after the Upton Sinclair novel "The Jungle" had alerted Americans to unsanitary conditions in the nation's slaughterhouses. The FDA oversees the safety of most other foods, including seafood, fruits and vegetables.
Neither agency's inspection system is perfect, but the one that covers beef is more likely to catch problems than the one covering seafood, according to consumer groups and people who have worked in food safety.
The split system has resulted in a patchwork process for ensuring that meat, seafood and produce consumed in the United States is safe. In a report this year, the Government Accountability Office called federal oversight of the food safety system "fragmented" and put it on a list of "high-risk" programs.
Reports of unsafe food from China have spurred a reexamination of the system, which some say has not caught up with recent increases in food imports, which have doubled in value in the past decade. "Our overall food-safety system needs comprehensive reform. People are losing confidence," said Rep. Rosa DaLauro (D-Conn.), a frequent critic of the......
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Actually, you should not be eating breaded shrimp. Shrimp should be eaten just the way nature made it.
Can anyone explain to me why we are doing this?
“Last year, under high-level pressure from China, the USDA passed a rule allowing China to export to the United States chickens that were grown and slaughtered in North America and then processed in China — a rule that quickly passed through multiple levels of review and was approved the day before Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Washington last April.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051901273_3.html
“Can anyone explain to me why we are doing this?”
1. Some one thinks it will profitable to avoid paying americans $7 an hour
2. Bush needs China to finance his tax “cuts”
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