Food Safety? Another Beef Recall!

What the fuck is going on with the safety of our food...particularly meat?

I'm not a vegetarian, but I can't believe how often we hear about beef recalls related to safety problems in slaughterhouses.

In this most recent case--the largest beef recall in history--potentially ill animals were not reported to the veterinarian, once initial inspection was passed.

Yes, there are process failures. Whenever a process fails, it's important to look at the contributing factors. Is it greed? Or is it that economic incentives in the industry are similar to what many physicians (especially in primary care) are having to do by increasing volume to make ends meet? We tell our docs upon hire that about 25 patients/day is what it takes to break-even at most of our locations. We've got some docs that see an average of 40 patients/day due to the fact that they've got some pretty significant personal financial stress going on.

Modifying incentives to avoid "cutting corners" is absolutely essential for us.

As far as the incentives in this beef recall case go, it appears it's too late, however, since much of this meat in question has likely been consumed I by now.

Oops.