The frozen chicken from China story has a follow-up. You may remember that a warehouse full of the chicken was found in Detroit although import is banned to the US because it came from an area where there is bird flu. An unstated amount of the meat was already in commerce in restaurants and retail stores. If you live in Detroit, you probably haven't received a recall notice, however:
Health officials have begun contacting restaurants and markets supplied by a Troy warehouse suspected of importing Chinese poultry, but there was no plan Thursday for alerting the retail customers of Asia Food Service Inc.[snip]
Criticism increased Thursday of the government's handling of the potential health threat.
"It looks like a complete lack of communication between federal, state and local authorities," said state Rep. Edward Gaffney, R-Grosse Pointe Farms, chairman of the House health policy committee.
On June 9, federal officials destroyed 1,940 pounds of poultry they seized from the warehouse June 5, suspecting the frozen birds were illegally imported from China, a country that has experienced a type of bird flu that can potentially infect and kill humans. State and federal officials seized and destroyed another 1,600 pounds of food at the warehouse July 6. (Detroit News)
You shouldn't worry. "Officials stressed there is no evidence the poultry seized in Troy was infected with avian flu. They said there are no signs anyone has been infected, and it is unlikely that has happened."
Indeed, there is literally no evidence the meat was infected because they destroyed the evidence:
On June 9, federal officials destroyed 1,940 pounds of poultry they seized from the warehouse June 5, suspecting the frozen birds were illegally imported from China, a country that has experienced a type of bird flu that can potentially infect and kill humans. State and federal officials seized and destroyed another 1,600 pounds of food at the warehouse July 6.
No samples for testing were taken, so officials don't know if the food was infected. Federal officials said it is standard procedure to destroy seized food without testing it. [my emphasis]
Oh, I get it. It is standard procedure for there to be no evidence. So there's never anything to worry about either.
I guess we can say that in this case standard procedures were followed.
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Revere.
From my experience, this situations is not unusual.
Food inspection systems operate, to large part, on a 'good will' basis.
Financial disencentives and other penalties are usually not enough to ensure compliance.
Fines are considered a minor inconvenience; a cost of doing business.
So when we start getting American chicken that's been processed in China (remember that one?), we won't have to worry about any contamination of any sort. See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Say No Evil...
So where do the people of chinese origin in Detroit go to see a doctor? Perhaps those docs know.
Unfortunately, this is standard practice - any illegaly entered food products are immediatley destroyed before they can enter the commerce. (In theory, anyway).
Sometimes, samples are taken if there is a question, but that usually involves a suspect shipment from a lawful country - for example tuna from Japan. Then the samples are tested for levels of toxins or presence of rodent hair, feces...you'd be dismayed at how often they are found.
However, I find it VERY surprising that the chicken was not referred for testing, since the very reason the chicken was prohibited in the first place was because of the fear of exposure to H5N1.
Why isn't this getting more attention?
Oh, never mind. Forget I asked.
"It looks like a complete lack of communication between federal, state and local authorities," said state Rep. Edward Gaffney, R-Grosse Pointe Farms, chairman of the House health policy committee.
Federal officials said it is standard procedure to destroy seized food without testing it.
I think they already drowned the baby in the bathwater, a la Grover Norquist's wet dream. The obvious answer is to turn all this overseein' stuff over to the private sector. The Free Market will sort it all out. Sooner or later. Probably. If it's "what our customers want."
True Chicken Story:
Scientists at NASA have developed a gun for the purpose of launching dead chickens. It is used to shoot a dead chicken at the windshield of airline jet, military jet, or the space shuttle, at that vehicles maximum traveling velocity. The idea being, that it would simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl, and therefore determine if the windshields are strong enough to endure high-speed bird strikes.
British engineers, upon hearing of the gun, were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high-speed trains. However, upon firing the gun, the engineers watched in shock as the chicken shattered the windshield, smashed through the control console, snapped the engineers backrest in two, and embedded itself into the back wall of the cabin.
Horrified and puzzled, the engineers sent NASA the results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield, and asked the NASA scientists for any suggestions.
The NASA scientists sent back a brief response: Thaw the chicken.
If it's standard policy to destroy the evidence without testing it, then the problem has nothing to do with miscommunication. As a matter of policy, there was never anything to communicate.
If the goal is to preserve consumer confidence in eating poultry, they're doing a heckuvajob!
Heeey. Do we REALLY believe that no tests were done? If Bush madmin is studious enough to wiretap common peoples phone calls, I'm confident that they are studious enough to test that kind of chickens.
Besides, that kind of testing and sdestroying would be an advantage to vaccine industry in US, wouldn't it?
Pet foods and snacks use chicken imported from China. So do your Raman noodles. All potential sources of h5n1 infection for Fluffy, Fido and yourself.
In memoire of the Klin pigs...:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-08/03/content_1701348.htm
"Dozen of pigs in N. Thailand die with unknown cause
www.chinaview.cn 2004-08-03 12:58:27
BANGKOK, Aug. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- A dozen of pigs in the northern province of Kampaengpetch in Thailand have died with unknown cause.
The 12 pigs belonged to a farm of a local villager in Ban Kon Tai in the province's Muang district, the Thai News Agency reported Tuesday.
"They had died one by one since July 25, and three more are dying," the owner of the pig farm, Klin Jabpeng said.
"The pigs suffered from high fever, cough, swelling eyes, and breathing difficulty," he disclosed.
Klin said that he had reported the incident to his village's head, who is reporting to local livestock officials.
Early this year, Klin said, all eight chickens in his farm died from bird flu, together with several more of his neighbors' farms.Enditem"
Nothing survives in Ramen. Not flu, not flavor, not nutrition. They are the Twinkies of lunch food.
GZH: Thanks! I needed a good laugh! Of course I personally don't eat Ramen as I am unaware of a vegetarian variety. But hey, what do you expect for 25 cents?