Feed recalled meat to animals? Oh, that makes sense

Be reassured people. Everything is under control in the aftermath of the tainted meat scandal.

Paul Mayers, a senior manager at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, says some of the recalled meat might be fed to animals. "I'm not suggesting that that is an option in this case. When product is recalled, then a range of options can be employed," he said, including destruction. However, he added:

"Product may go to rendering ... and through rendering, then that product can be reworked, the listeria would be destroyed and that product could then be used in the production of animal feed provided that the product meets our requirements."

Hmmmm. Feeding rendered meat to animals. Haven't we heard something about that before? Didn't I get on a plane to go to Alberta to cover BSE in that province? Or is mad cow disease no longer associated with animals eating animals?

I'm probably not the only one scratching my head in the fallout of the listeriosis outbreak. So many lapses in logic. It would be almost comical if people weren't dying and getting sick and families not worried about feeding children.

I could swear I heard Maple Leaf Foods spokesperson Linda Smith saying Maple Leaf Foods found positive swabs for listeria in their Toronto plant earlier in the summer, but that samples tested negative after the area had been thoroughly sanitized. So tell me why wasn't there a recall then? Is it because "positive results for listeria inside a food plant" are common? That's what CEO Michael McCain told reporters at yesterday's press conference, simultaneously declining to give details on listeria having been found at the Toronto plant. He did stress, however, that nothing was found "out of the norm" prior to the outbreak.

He's apologized and taken the blame for Maple Leaf, insisting it wasn't the fault of federal or provincial inspectors. A cynic might attribute that seemingly noble approach to a desire to avoid even further costly and time-consuming inspection hassles in future. But let's not be cynical.

If McCain won't give details on listeria swabs and won't say there should have been a recall, what is it exactly he's taking blame for? He said regulators weren't to blame, but stressed they were made aware of all test results and procedures at the Toronto plant. That seems to shift responsibility back to the regulators. What should Maple Leaf have done? McCain says it's hopeless to test all the meat:

"If you had a box of cereal and you took one tablespoon of cereal out of that box you would more than likely get a negative result, even though a bacteria may exist at the bottom of the box," he said. "It's like looking for a needles in a hay stack."

Where does that leave us? You can't test all the meat but apparently it's not reliable to test the environment at the plant either because positive results are common. Bummer. Overall, McCain seems to be moving to the maybe-we'll-never-know approach.

If they can't do better than that, maybe the public should take the maybe-we'll-never-eat-processed-meat approach.

A postcript: McCain swears he's not, but it sure sounds as if he's listening to lawyers. Or am I being too cynical?

Comments

[elizabeth]

it bothers me that some places have had multiple health violations and do not get closed down. Maybe if it had been taken serious it would not have come to this. People have to die before people pay attention to what is really going on in this world. Health inspectors see anything wrong in a store or a factory it should be shut down immediatly. People would work alot harder to keep everything clean and up to date. This is a tradgity that had to take lives. I think the health inspectors should take there job more seriously. Thank you for taking the time and reading this. This is very upsetting.

[truth seeker]

This whole outbreak just reminds me that when God put Adam and Eve in the garden he did not instruct them to slaughter the animals and feast. Just think where we would be today if we all followed that recipe. We would also be greener than any politician's dream.

It's payback time for the way the animals are treated.

Yes, let's just keep feeding animal carcass back to vegetarian animals - I am certain that is what God intended to happen. Did we forget Mad Cow?

[Mary Sunshine]

The tragic thing us, that if all those packaged meets had been subject to pasteurization ** after ** packaging, none of this would have happened, 12 people would still be alive, and tons of meat would have been, or would be , consumed in the regular manner.

It's prions and not bacteria that survive rendering. In this case, the recalled meat after rendering would be sterile and contain no listeria.

Prions and mad cow are a totally different and unrelated matter - deserves a google search. Has to do with infected aninals. Listeria doesn't.

[Pamela Becking]

If this meat is so full of a harmful bacteria as to be unfit for human consumption, what village idiot (or, group of village idiots) came up with the idea of saving a few bucks by dumping it into the pet food supply? Didn't the recent pet food recall, deaths and ensuing lawsuits teach anybody anything? Apparently not.

People who share their lives with companion animals are a lot better educated as to what actually ends up in commercial pet food than they were a year ago. More and more people are choosing to home cook for their pets (myself included) because they no longer trust the pet food supply. Attempting to save money by dumping contaminated meat into the food our canine and feline companions eat is NOT going to help restore faith in an already flawed system.

[Jocelyne]

Thanks for the info about rendering this meat for animals. That scares me as well. My husband was sick in June after eating Balogna from Maple Leaf. We laughed it off because he NEVER gets ill. I wonder is it was infected? I'm thinking of cook for my pet at home. At least this article doesn't talk about Obama and the DNC. I'm sick of hearing that.

[Pat for Pets]

This is idiotic. In my view the senior execs of this company should eat this meat. Too little care is taken these days for the purity of food. I will never buy any of this deli meat again. I was shopping earlier today and the deli counter was absolutely empty. There should be stringent punishment for this company but I am sure this won't happen. Feed it to animals, are these people insane???????

[Malies Mom]

Even home cooking for our little ones--and us---is no protection...for OUR food is what is contaminated as well. I'm in the US, and I don't feel any safer; I expected more from the folks in charge in your country. Shame on them all, and shame on not announcing it quicker and pulling the product quicker.

[ann]

Well Since its not only meat, thats being recalled, and I am sure that maple leaf does not produce or handle mushrooms and cheese, should we not be looking elsewhere as well, for sources, we seem to be forgetting that small part, in our eagerness to cast the blame on maple leaf, Just a thought ,