As our legal team has been working on the latest JBS Swift & Company recall, someone sent me a snippet from the company’s web site. If you look at the photo, you get the idea of what is supposed to be a driving force for this company, “We’re passionate about food safety.” Let’s drill down on what we currently know to test the “passion”.
After an expanded recall on June 28th, JBS Swift is now trying to get back 190 tons (yes, I said tons) of meat that was processed on April 21st & 22nd, because it is suspected in 18 cases of E. coli O157:H7 poisoning. The FSIS and JBS Swift issued an expanded recall list for consumers. It is 104 pages long. This list is very comprehensive for the numbers and meat cuts associated with the recall, just don’t expect to see a list of who bought and sold this meat.
What that means is that we know that JBS Swift contaminated meats were marked and sent to consumers, we just aren’t told where consumers purchased the meats.
The beef sold by JBS Swift isn’t always precut, ground or fully processed. That means butchers, supermarkets and restaurants often use the larger beef cuts to make smaller cuts and ground beef. The cross contamination scenario is mind boggling; surfaces, utensils, mechanical food processors, hands, not to mention the food, all now become potential infection threats.
When you consider that the meat was sent out for distribution in late April and it is now late June, there is a strong likelihood that some of this meat has already been processed, sold and consumed.
But currently, the laws do not require the company responsible for a foodborne illness outbreak to divulge, to the public, any information regarding who bought from them. Essentially, when it comes to recalls, we are expected to put our faith in the vigilance of the giant agro-processors who contaminated the meat in the first place.
The CDC believes that there may be 18 people with E. coli o157:H7 contamination related to JBS Swift meats. The CDC also believes that for every reported case of foodborne illness there are 35-50 unreported cases. If you extrapolate that number with the number the CDC believes are infected, that means there could be 630 to 900 people who have become ill due to JBS Swift’s negligence.
And the only way we are supposed to track this outbreak is to follow the trail of incidents after the people have already become ill. When you consider the dangers from complications of E. coli O157:H7 poisoning, such as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), tracking illnesses this way seems irresponsible.
Obviously we need more transparency in our food safety protocols. We should be allowed access to distribution lists along with recalled product lists. We need to know where contaminated meat is sold and handled. This shouldn’t be left to the companies that caused the problem in the first place. We have a right as consumers to be informed about the products we and our families consume.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2010
