New source for mad cow panademic

[outspoken]

This is just sickening, people eat this?

Supermarkets selling chicken that is nearly a fifth water | World news | The Guardian

There are fears that undeclared proteins, some extracted from pig and beef waste and cattle bones, may be being added to frozen wholesale chicken sold to the catering trade, such as fast food outlets and Chinese and Indian restaurants. However, the tests will not be completed until next March.

It just amazes me the risks companies will take just to make an extra dollar. Is it really worth putting everyones health in danger just to make a little bit more money? vCJD can come from cattle bones. Really reassures me the government is doing nothing about the issue - just arguing over if it's legal or not.

 

[Phil Wainwright]

As I have mentioned in a couple of posts (I think) I spent a long time as a disaster restoration engineer. One of the places I never liked to visit were food processing plants. Some were so distressing that for years after visiting them, I have never eaten one of their products and check the labels on all foods to see where it was manufactured. (To be honest; the best, most hygienic food factory I have ever visited made dog food!) That factory should be offered up as an an industry best practice. Tis a shame some other manufacturers of food for human consumption do not follow the same procedures.

At the same time, as a small business owner, sometimes choice is not an option. If I have a choice of hunger or eating, well hunger will kill you quicker than a prion disease....

But the problem is control and monitoring. The choice of hunger or adulterated food should not even be a choice anyone should have to make. It is the same choice as in some third world countries where the choice is dying of thirst or drinking unclean water. In the 21st century, these really should not be choices anymore. Can we not provide clean water and food that is what it says?

One such incident (and as you read, you will be aware that I am giving information whilst not opening myself to legal action) occurred in an animal feed factory somewhere in Europe. I was dealing with the results of a large explosion, one area we had to deal with was the insides of the silos (particularly the feed mechanisms and sensing equipment inside these silos). It is estimated that under normal conditions it takes up to six months for a lump of compressed feed to grow on the inside of the silo. This lump after six months would be approximately the size of a cricket or baseball. We encountered lumps that were the size of cars!

Therefore it would appear that these lumps started growing before the outbreak of the BSE scandal. It also follows that these silos were never cleaned following the change of law on the contents of animal feed.........

So monitoring and control? well, maybe one trip that could be done using time travel is to send a investigative team to every food plant (animal or human) in the world at the same time on the same day..... That would catch the buggers out! and to maintain that level of inspection.

(see how I cleverly managed to incorporate time-travel into food safety )

(well, maybe not that cleverly, more chintzy o_0)