Horror Stories From the Food Industry

[IDistractedYou]

I work in the quality assurance department of a food warehouse that distributes to most of Ohio, Indianna, New York, and PA. (Due to a contract I signed I can't specifically name the company.) Working in this department I naturally deal with lots of outdated and recalled product. We handle product for the Honeybaked Ham Company. Back in October we had to isolate half of our stock but we did not know why. We found out a month later when the public did that there was a nationwide recall on Honey Baked Hams. (They announced the recall the day AFTER Thanksgiving)

http://foodpoisoning.pritzkerlaw.com/archives/listeria-honeybaked-ham-and-turkey-recall-listeria-lawyer.html (http://http//foodpoisoning.pritzkerlaw.com/archives/listeria-honeybaked-ham-and-turkey-recall-listeria-lawyer.html)

Now what you should know about Honeybaked Ham is a smoked shank portion and often what is advertised as a fresh ham is a month or more old. Once word of this recall got around Honeybaked's Holiday sales were down so we sent half of our stock of hams some of which were packed back in October of 2006, were sent to a blast freezer to be frozen and are now being thawed to send to our warehouse so that we may send them to the various honeybaked stores in Ohio and PA. So I suggest if you or your family is considering getting a "Fresh" honeybaked ham, that you go elsewhere for a honey glazed pork product. I'd hate to see anyone from here get sick. Tommorow's horror story, a certain chicken chain...

[sun]

I work in the quality assurance department of a food warehouse that distributes to most of Ohio, Indianna, New York, and PA. (Due to a contract I signed I can't specifically name the company.) Working in this department I naturally deal with lots of outdated and recalled product. We handle product for the Honeybaked Ham Company. Back in October we had to isolate half of our stock but we did not know why. We found out a month later when the public did that there was a nationwide recall on Honey Baked Hams. (They announced the recall the day AFTER Thanksgiving)

http://foodpoisoning.pritzkerlaw.com/archives/listeria-honeybaked-ham-and-turkey-recall-listeria-lawyer.html (http://http//foodpoisoning.pritzkerlaw.com/archives/listeria-honeybaked-ham-and-turkey-recall-listeria-lawyer.html)

Now what you should know about Honeybaked Ham is a smoked shank portion and often what is advertised as a fresh ham is a month or more old. Once word of this recall got around Honeybaked's Holiday sales were down so we sent half of our stock of hams some of which were packed back in October of 2006, were sent to a blast freezer to be frozen and are now being thawed to send to our warehouse so that we may send them to the various honeybaked stores in Ohio and PA. So I suggest if you or your family is considering getting a "Fresh" honeybaked ham, that you go elsewhere for a honey glazed pork product. I'd hate to see anyone from here get sick. Tommorow's horror story, a certain chicken chain...

Over a hundred years ago, (1906) there was a scandal about bad meat getting into the food supply..(Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, l906, pages 100-102 you can read it yourself)

After the publication of this book, the Pure Food and Drug Laws were passed, that summer. Inspectors working for the Food and Drug Administration, FDA were supposed to prevent what is written above.

So the law is effective. It is there, but not enforced. Recently, bad peanut butter somehow got into the food supply. This should never happen, given the fact that laws against this stuff are on the books. oh well? :confused:

[tucsoncoyote]

Over a hundred years ago, (1906) there was a scandal about bad meat getting into the food supply..(Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, l906, pages 100-102 you can read it yourself)

After the publication of this book, the Pure Food and Drug Laws were passed, that summer. Inspectors working for the Food and Drug Administration, FDA were supposed to prevent what is written above.

So the law is effective. It is there, but not enforced. Recently, bad peanut butter somehow got into the food supply. This should never happen, given the fact that laws against this stuff are on the books. oh well? :confused:

And it's not only peanut butter we're talking about here, sun. In fact over the last year or so we've had issues with Lettuce and Spinach, (Contaminated with E.Coli.) that eventually ended up causing illness in fast food restaurants, and these incited massive recalls of store brought brands, where stores have literally pulled countless items off the shelves, and in one case, a shut down of about 11 fast food restaurants in the Northeastern U.S.

But it doesn't stop there, some fast food places are still suffering the effects of food poisoning backlashes. since their first reported cases of E.Coli, Jack in the Box has increased its food processing qualities, and yet still from time to time (about 1 case in 1000 to 1 in 10,000), you do end up with an under processed burger. And it's not only Jack in the Box. I remember one burger and onion ring meal I got 4 years ago at a fast food place. Next day I was really sick, and went back to complain to the manager. I and the manager went outside to discuss this and about getting a refund. The Manager argued that unless I could produce the product that i had consumed I wasn't getting a refund. at which point my own stomach replied as I horked up the previous night's dinner.. No arguements after that, I got a full refund.

The Point is that even with all the laws and rules that are on the books today that are there, there are still gaps in our food system quality, that can't (or rather won't) keep us safe. Just recently there was a major recall on Pet food, and even though pets are not covered by the laws, and ended up suffering due to a contamination of their food by a wheat product that had been tainted by rat poison coming from China, imagine what this would have been like if that same wheat had ended up in not pet food, but rather bread...(after all Wheat is made into flour and thus can be used for any bread or dough product). So if there is rat poison in a specific brand of wheat, what would stop it from getting into the food chain for humans? Not a lot really.

I think finally the real reason why these events happen are because of the fact that each company is really trying to make a profit here. The bottom line is in fact, money. It's because companies are competing with each other here to try and turn out a quality product, they tend to take shortcuts here, and in the end, by taking shortcuts to product quality food, they in turn let quality slip out from under the safety net, so in the end, the product they produce really isn't up to quality standards on the books.

So when you think about stuff like this, it makes you wonder, what next event in our news will make it big time where more people die of food poisoning then car accidents? I mean is your brocolli even safe, (Let alone your spinach or lettuce) Is your bread safe? Is even the meats (such as in the original posts commentary even safe (Turkey, chicken and beef can all be compromised (Beef already once has).

In closing until food processing companies can get away from the issues of profit and shortcut methods, will anyone be truly safe. but until then, cases of the sorts mentioned above will occur... and they will keep occuring until a lot of people are hurt.

:coyote:

[Weatherman]

Thankfully that particular wheat product isn't used in human food, though I'm not sure what our policy is on importing products for human consumption that are grown in another country using methods we don't permit here. Food's always been a messy industry. The bigger problem is alot of companies fight the rules rather than trying to make them work the way their supposed to. I can't figure out why they'd rather have a recall and sick/dead custoemrs ratehr than making the system better.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Is this an okay place to post my gross working at Burger King stories?

[sun]

Is this an okay place to post my gross working at Burger King stories?

Shawn? If they are true, and you are not working there, what is anyone going to do?...I guess the key is the truth..I have heard second hand stories about the fast food places.

Do you have first hand stories? A lot of restaurants are really unclean, and actually unsanitary. Shouldn't we know about those that are like that?. If your stories are too x rated, then they will pull them. I doubt hearing about poor prep, and unsanitary conditions are x rated, or even pg rate. ..good luck in telling your stories.....p.s. you know that I am no mod...this is just my opinoin......sun

[tucsoncoyote]

Is this an okay place to post my gross working at Burger King stories?

Well if you aren't working for them anymore then go right ahead Shawn, also if you read my post and you wondered what fast food restaurant I horked up that Burger and Rings? Yep it was Burger King.. (I stayed off of that for a while until about 3 months after that incident.)

:coyote:

[sun]

The Government admitted today, that it was supposed to inspect meat plants every day, but only inspected every two weeks....here is the link, in a moment I will have parts of the story for you to read..


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070329/us_nm/usa_meat_usda_dc

USDA admits skipped meat plant checks for 30 years

By Charles Abbott 2 hours, 16 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For three decades, U.S. inspectors visited 250 meat processing plants as rarely as once every two weeks despite federal law requiring daily inspection, Agriculture Department officials admitted to lawmakers on Thursday



All I can say is, it's been going on for a long time," said Undersecretary Richard Raymond to the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture. "It's going to stop now." There are 6,000 federally inspected slaughterhouses and meat processing plants in the United States, USDA says.
The practice started under directives issued in the early 1970s, said Raymond. He told reporters afterward that daily inspections would commence "soon, damn soon." He said the plants apparently were small operations located a long distance from an inspector's base.
Also during the hearing, Raymond said USDA would delay until June or July the implementation of "risk-based inspection" of processing plants, rather than begin in April. USDA may propose at the end of 2007 to adopt the system at slaughterhouses, he said.
Subcommittee chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (news (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/politics/news/nm/us_nm/usa_meat_usda_dc/22456547/*http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?fr=news-storylinks&p=%22Rosa%20DeLauro%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw), bio (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/capadv/bio/nm/us_nm/usa_meat_usda_dc/22456547/SIG=117t4bbvm/*http://yahoo.capwiz.com/y/bio/?id=691), voting record (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/capadv/vote/nm/us_nm/usa_meat_usda_dc/22456547/SIG=11gt8m7vd/*http://yahoo.capwiz.com/y/bio/keyvotes/?id=691)) repeatedly challenged whether USDA has the data needed to justify the new inspection system. "If I can help it, not on my watch," said the Connecticut Democrat in adjourning the hearing. She said Raymond would be called to another hearing in April.
DeLauro said the infrequent inspections at the 250 plants could be a violation of meat inspection laws, which require daily inspection. "I believe you're exactly right," replied Raymond, who is in charge of food safety at USDA.
While Raymond said he learned three weeks ago of the practice, DeLauro said "I find it very improbable" no one at the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which runs the meat inspection system, was aware of it.
FSIS acting administrator David Goldman told the subcommittee the 250 plants were not allowed to ship meat without inspection. They held it until approved by an inspector, he said. Some plants were checked twice a week and others were visited once every two weeks, said Goldman.
Raymond said he would take steps to assure all plants received daily inspection.
"It is critical that FSIS from this point forward document that plants are visited daily, as required by law," said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Federal law requires continuous inspection of packing plants and daily inspection of processing plants.

[tucsoncoyote]

Frankly after that Post sun, I'm going to throw a link up here that deals with the pet food incidents that happened (Yes this goes back to the pet food deaths as of late, but remember.. these deaths were caused by pet food. But imagine if this had gotten into our own food sources,and I'm going to highlight the key points to show you that this could have applied to humans.


related Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17870750/


WASHINGTON - Recalled pet foods contained a chemical used to make plastics, but government tests failed to confirm the presence of rat poison, federal officials said Friday.
The Food and Drug Administration said it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food, as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient in the wet-style products. The FDA was working to rule out the possibility that the contaminated wheat gluten could have made it into any human food, but was not aware of any risk to people.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the melamine was the culprit in the deaths of more than a dozen cats and dogs and the illnesses of hundreds more, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine.

In a news conference, FDA officials said that the apparently melamine-contaminated wheat gluten also was shipped to a company that manufactures dry pet food, but they would not name the company.

Wheat gluten, a source of vegetable protein, is also used in some human foods, but the FDA emphasized it had found no indication that the contaminated ingredient had been used in food for people.

The FDA said it would alert the public quickly if the melamine was found in any foods other than the recalled pet food.

Cornell University scientists also found melamine — used to produce plastic kitchen wares and used in Asia as a fertilizer — in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating the company’s wet food.

Now Like I stated in one of my earlier posts. Imagine wheat gluten which contained this chemical ending up in one of our foods, and then we consumed it.

*Breaks out the forks and Knives* Okay so who here wants to eat Kitchen plastic? I think no one really does, but let's face it. If this stuff can get into our pets' food, what would stop it from ending up in our own food supply? Not a whole lot.

Also It's amazing that Sun's commentary deals with Meat and meat supplies.. After all Mad Cow Disease anyone? Believe me, If you can get E.Coli from Spinach and lettuce, what's to stop you from consuming beef loaded with Mad cow Disease if the inspectors only check each plant every 14 days, instead of every day? Again.. Not a whole lot.

So if anyone wants to really try and argue this, think about your pet dying.. Think about your child or your siblings getting E.coli. ( I had a friend who caught E.Coli from eating under cooked chicken, and he suffered for many months...that right there says a lot).

So believe me, this food issue isn't on just the human level, it's also on our pets' level, and when it gets this bad, it's time for the FDA to get a Major overhaul... big time.

:coyote: