Just desserts: Food industry edition

DAS CONTAMINATION!!!

Food industry bitten by its lobbying success

The most recent salmonella outbreak has cost the food industry $250 million.....so far. There have been alot of contaminated food outbreaks in the last few years prompting many expensive food recalls and expensive searches to find and fix the problem. Also thousands of illnesses and even deaths in some cases. Why has there been such a radical increase in the number and frequency of food borne illness outbreaks? Your favorite words and mine deregulation and self-regulation.

The industry pressured the Bush administration years ago to limit the paperwork companies would have to keep to help U.S. health investigators quickly trace produce that sickens consumers, according to interviews and government reports reviewed by The Associated Press.

The White House also killed a plan to require the industry to maintain electronic tracking records that could be reviewed easily during a crisis to search for an outbreak's source. Companies complained the proposals were too burdensome and costly, and warned they could disrupt the availability of consumers' favorite foods.

That's right, the food industries spent millions to lobby the government to decrease oversight and tracking methods. This administration was only too happy to oblige. Now regulations and record keeping methods that would have been in place (cradle to grave tracking) would have severely blunted or largely eliminated the spread and frequency of the outbreaks. Instead the industry opted for self regulation that they didn't do and lax methods and they're losing hundreds of millions of dollars (and there hasn't even been a lawsuit yet) and still aren't sure if they've figured out the source of the latest salmonella outbreak.

Quit whining and take the losses and the lawsuits. This is the situation you wanted and the only logical conclusion that could have happened with your lax tracking and methods. This is why regulation exists, to protect the consumer, but to also protect the business by making the mistakes easier to fix. You remember that and I'll try not to look high and mighty as a stroll past the tomatoes and jalapenos to buy something that isn't contaminated.