Feces, Vomit On Raw Meat A Growing Risk

By Julie Vorman 9-7-00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans face a growing risk of eating feces, vomit and metal shards in meat and poultry because the US Agriculture Department is allowing companies to perform more of their own food safety inspections, two consumer groups and a labor union said on Tuesday.

The rest of the story ~

http://news.excite.com/news/r/000906/13/health-feces

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), September 12, 2000

Answers

It's disgusting. I work in food production, and what goes on would turn your stomach! Blow the whistle?! Not yet, need my job!

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), September 12, 2000.

Hey Guys! I read somewhere awhile back about the amount of rodent "droppings" and "rodent hair" that's allowed in foodstuffs by our gov't. I don't remember just how much was allowable but ANY is too much for me. I don't like our gov't interfering with our rights at all but in this case I guess they should. Companies/industries that cannot police themselves brings this type of gov't intervention on all. I know a person that works in a creamery. His job was cleaning out the ice cream vats when the "run" was finished. He would tell his family when NOT to buy ice cream. The reason? Dead rats in the bottom of the freezer vat!! I've also heard of people chewin backer while workin around kettles of food being cooked. Guess where they spit their backer juice? Yep, methings its time to quit buying "store bought" grub and try living off the land more. Some things were not meant to be eaten by man. They save everything now from the hog but the squeal! Theyre workin on it I suppose. My $2 worth. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), September 12, 2000.

That's reall nice. Glad I am a veg even though they can give you hep with that too. grow yer own.

-- Doreen (liberty546@hotmail.com), September 12, 2000.

It is fairly disgusting - and then people wonder why we see such a sharp increase in diseases!

Personally, I'm hoping to be eating my own chickens, eggs, and rabbits real soon, and this month I'm supposed to be getting half of a beef cow (and next year I'm having my buddy run me a beef cow with his) - pasture fed, with maybe some home grown ground corn thrown in for good measure, and no hormones, etc.!

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), September 13, 2000.

Some of this is hard to beleive .My husband worked for Arnold bakery for 9 years They were very carefull of cleaning and rodent control .They dumped many a batch because of possible contamination .They were always spraying for bugs and had mouse and rat traps out .They had gotten in trouble from the health dept . because there was a mouse in the trap ! Where better than the trap ?

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 13, 2000.

Not just food production companies, but also restaurants are at fault. When growing up, I worked at a very upscale restraurant in Utah. Many times when a whole tray of premade salads were dumped on the floor in the cooler, or a tray of steaks got dropped on the floor, they just picked them up and put them back on the tray, or back in the bowls. All of the remmnants of sour cream, butter cubes, rolls, etc left over on the tables when they were cleared, were brought back into the kitchen, and scooped back into a tub to be reused. Butters were put in the fridge, and carefully taken off the little plates and put on fresh ones and reserved to the next patron. Who knows what happenend to them on the tables? Yuk. To this day, I hate to eat out! I'm sure, if it happened there, it happens at a lot of other places, too. Jan in Colorado

-- Jan in Colorado (Janice12@aol.com), September 13, 2000.

I have two cousins work or used to work in poultry processing houses. One, in fact, is a chicken inspector (US). The chicken inspector will not eat commercially processed chicken. She says that the guidelines for inspection are so lax that there are all kinds of chickens allowed to pass. Even chickens with open sores are simply "parted out" and used anyway--they just cut out the damaged parts and put them in for making animal feed, then sell the rest as choice parts (breast, thighs, etc.) The other one said that the standing orders when he was supervisor of the line was to pull out 20 of the nicest looking chickens and give them to the inspector. There were certain farms they were NEVER to give birds from to the inspector. They would not pass the bacterial inspection, as they knew they had salmonella in the flesh itself. By the way, this company is the fourth largest poultry producer in the country, and is the one that supplies the chickens to the joints with golden arches.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), September 13, 2000.

Once again I have not had those experiences .I worked for several resteraunts and no problems .I hope my experiences are the normal not yours .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 13, 2000.

I'm always happier to be a vegetarian everytime I read stuff like this, although I agree about growing your own, as the veggies are regulated by the same people. How these people manage to eat enough to stay alive after witnessing what goes on is beyond me. Probably the food inspectors that are secretly leading the organic/back to the land movement!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 13, 2000.

Hi Patti, Take off the rose colored glasses! I worked in a 'neighborhood' deli some years ago, and lost my job because I refused to sell 8 day old eggplant parm!(cooked, cooled,heated,cooled-yuck!) My sister was a chef assistant, and warned: never EVER send something back to the kitchen! And when all possible, only eat out for lunch (mid week) Or, early bird dinners. All you've read is true, and I bet there is worse! The place I work now should be shut down. Do I feel guilty? Yes. But, as said, I need my job.

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), September 13, 2000.

Vegetarians, don't feel too good about your food. I worked out in the field for a large specialty crop producer. His bathroom facilities consisted of an outhouse set on bare ground (no pit) at the edge of the field. No handwashing facilities in the field, a cold water spigot in the yard available where we processed and packed out the veggies. No soap provided. I watched guys pee off the sides of the picking equipment (After I jumped their butts, they at least peed on the rows we had already picked, instead of the ones we were getting ready to pick). I always carried a gallon jug of soapy water with me to the field - couldn't force the others to use it though. One of the longest 4 month periods of my life - really, really hard to have any respect for that boss. And I'm sure he doesn't realize why. His equipment was dangerous junk also. Most of his employees were ex-cons, or people who were drawing welfare or unemployment - guess that cut down on the chances of them reporting him. I wanted the experience for maybe starting my own business - won't run it that a way, for darn sure!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), September 13, 2000.

I don't have any rose colored glasses , yes I know things like this happen .I have gotten food poisoning from Burger King {barf} and can't eat at buffets . Just from my personal experience these things didn't happen on my shift .Maybe I should try the glasses I might be happier and in style.

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 13, 2000.

Hey Patti, I was just being jib, ya know. I didn't mean to insult you with the rose glasses thing, really. I guess it's that I know people who are clueless. You're not clueless, and I apologise if I offended you. Kathy - P.S and I deserved the 'not on my shift', jab. I wish we had a union.

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), September 13, 2000.

Kathy, there was no offense taken .I have worked in several resteraunts and have never seen such behavior and hope I never do .The not on my shift was not intended as a jab , I was just saying maybe it happened on other shifts .Some day I will learn to stay of this forum when I take sleeping pills ! Good night all and safe dining .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 13, 2000.

i work construction and a few years ago i supervised an addition being put on to a J.T.M. processing plant .they mfg.ready to eat meat products ..ex frozen microwavables and chilli for some of the restraunts .thier policy was that whatever was being batched on a day was served in the company cafateria free to the employes.a nice benifit andit made employes watch each other... each piece might be the one you would eat yourself.Jack Moss was a good man to work with and his sons run the company now.

-- george darby (windwillow@fuse.net), September 14, 2000.

I have to ask- where does the vomit come from/ Most animals don't vomit routinely, are they under such severe stress that they do right before they're butchered? Or are conditions SO bad there that thepeople are throwing up all over the meat? Sorry, couldn't help asking!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), September 15, 2000.

Rebekah , you made me laugh .I would imagine it's the employees ?

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 15, 2000.

About 4 years ago I bought 4 cans of Spam. The first can I oopened was 'good ole hog meat' with no undesirable attributes associated with the scarfin down ofit. The second can was absolutely horrible and to the point that I just couldn't eat it. I decided to write the Manfacturer about it. I did. I asked if they took a head count of employees every day. I also informed'm they had probably lost a big, dirty, stinkin, backer chawin employee and I knew where he was. They were nice and responded within a week. Enclosed were 4 cupons worth $2, each for more of their products. They also insisted they used the most fresh and wholesome ingredients in Spam, that was available. Of course that answered my question--theyonly use the BEST of ingred. Didn't mention anything about the "not quite prime" employees. I eat the stuff again but for awhile it was not fit for my dog to eat. I swear that was a cigar butt in one can! Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@pcinetwork.com), September 15, 2000.

Many years ago, my grandmother opened a can of commercially prepared vegetables and found a perfectly coiled up garter snake in it instead. I doubt the snake did it itself (altho possible), more likely some bored employee found it in the produce and thought he'd give someone a thrill. Given the stories here, I think I'd just go ahead and eat the snake.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), September 16, 2000.

You guys are making me feel like never eating again! Actually I use to raise 200 cornish rock hens every year and then have a small slaugter house slaughter for me, I gave alot of the chixs away to the elderly in our area, sold some and had a chix or two a week for my family. Since I moved to OK., they have no slaughter houses and I haven't built up the nerve or the know how to slaughter myself but can't stand the chix in walmart (our only supermarket within 30 miles). I just finished reading poultry profist with Joel Salantin(sp) but 10,000 for a slaughter or feather picker~! Debbie

-- Debbie Wolcott (bwolcott@cwis.net), September 19, 2000.

Debbie, Salatin raises chickens on a pretty large scale. You can buy feather pickers for a lot less than ten thousand dollars (they are still kind of expensive, though), and don't really need any special equipment for killing the birds. It isn't that hard to do -- you'll just have to get your nerve up!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 19, 2000.