Recalls are not uncommon in the modern food industry. As consumers have shifted toward convenience and increasingly done less food processing in their own kitchens, the opportunity for foodborne illness has expanded. One familiar example would be using bagged, previously processed, salad mixes instead of doing the raw chopping, cleaning and rinsing at home. [The risk is listeria (pink mold) or E.Coli]
A few days ago, when talking about the uptick in industrial accidents, CTH noted, “another downstream consequence could be an uptick in food recalls as an outcome of increased bacteria within the food processing equipment, because the break-down-time, sanitation and hygiene might be impacted by excessive operational run times.
There’s a myriad of issues from any industrial operation that goes from ordinary capacity to seriously over-stressed maximum capacity… and then remains in the emergency phase for months.”…
Now today: – “Approximately 120,872 pounds of ground beef products have been recalled due to possible E. coli contamination.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) website, Lakeside Refrigerated Services, of Swedesboro, N.J., announced Monday that it is recalling the beef after the problem was discovered during routine testing of imported products produced from Feb. 1 through April 8. (read more)
E.coli comes from bacteria in feces. Sometimes during cattle processing the blade can rupture the internal organs and feces can contaminate the meat. It’s not uncommon.
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