Jello wrote:

Mike the Usurper wrote:

The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

I couldn't make up a clusterfuck of these proportions. They're now blatantly fighting to make food LESS SAFE. Send these idiots back to whatever rock they crawled out from under and bury it.

The USDA has never tested all meat, ever. Nor have meatpackers. Its a spot check system. Always has been. Checking every piece of meat is no more practical than checking every cargo container. Absurd.

You misunderstand. A meatpacker WANTS to test all of their meat (I suppose so they can slap a 100% tested sticker on it) and the USDA is trying to block them from doing so. For that matter, from what I understand of the system, the USDA doesn't test anything, the packers test their 1% and send the results to the USDA.

Given the repeated issues with food safety over the past year (spinach and other e. coli incidents, poisoned pet food) if someone wants to go to 100% testing to gain a marketing edge, or anything else for that matter, why is the USDA trying to block it? Because other meatpackers are afraid they'll have to test more to compete? Tough shit for the other meatpackers.

RE: U.S. government fights to keep meatpackers from testing all slaughtered cattle for mad cow - International Herald Tribune