Where's The Beef? Umm, Nevermind...

[rpm]

Topps Meat Co LLC announced on Friday it was going out of business, crushed by the recall of 21.7 million pounds of beef linked to 30 cases of E. coli-related illness.

"In one week we have gone from the largest U.S. manufacturer of frozen hamburgers to a company that cannot overcome the economic reality of a recall this large," Anthony D'Urso, chief operating officer, said in a statement.

link

21.7 MILLION pounds? I'll have the chicken...

[LePaul]

What's scary is....how much of this e-coli stuff was around 20-30 years ago, but wasnt tested for or known about?

[Mark Luper]

Originally posted by LePaul
What's scary is....how much of this e-coli stuff was around 20-30 years ago, but wasnt tested for or known about?

There is a lot of stuff that was going around back in the "old days" that we didn't know about.

Seems that there is no end to what is bad for you.  I often wonder if ignorance wasn't bliss in those times.

We live longer because we are better informed and I think the longer we live the more we tendo to gripe about it.  

Oh well, hate to see then go under. How do you ensure clean meat in those quantities? The first time I saw something in the news about it I wondered how they would be able to handle a recall like that.

Mark

[E25280]

Jeesh -- cook it to 160 degrees, no problem.

[Mark Luper]

Originally posted by E25280
Jeesh -- cook it to 160 degrees, no problem.

This is true but we have gotten to the point here in the good ole US of A  that what is sold to us has to be idiot proof as well.

Mark

[SirLoin]

[Angus]

You eat Coli all day for that sake. It will however be a problem if you have too much.
You can cook it dead, but that is not the case with all other bacteria, or rather the material they have released, which is in many cases poisonous.
Coli turns up it's number's very fast, - under favourable conditions it will double every 20 minutes. It is therefore a good indicator for overall hygiene.
So my point is, that when a product busts the coli limit, it is an indicator of slack hygiene in the manufacture. Doesn't have to be much bad though....

(There are many creepy things abroad worse than coli)

[lasersailor184]

Originally posted by Mark Luper
This is true but we have gotten to the point here in the good ole US of A  that what is sold to us has to be idiot proof as well.

Mark

This is assuming that everyone has the capability to check to which degree meat is cooked.

[rpm]

The main problem was they were THE major supplier of frozen patties in the US. Most of their customers were hamburger joints with 16 year old kids slapping them on the griddle and on a bun. Quality control was nowhere in the process.

Kinda shocking that it put them out of business.

[storch]

the problem is that kids no longer play outside.  it is really nothing that eating a mouthful of a dirt every day would not solve.  sheesh you guys are weak.

[AquaShrimp]

Storch, a public keyboard has all types of bodily fluids and bacteria on it.  It has urine, fecal matter, body oils, snot, and sometimes even reproductive fluid.  Dirt doesn't have all of that.

[Xargos]

Chances are most of the people handling our food are not in this country legally.  You really think they worry about hygiene regulations when they don't follow any of our other laws?

[TalonX]

We always had E Coli.   We used to be accountable for ourselves.  That meant properly preparing food for consumption.

Everyone should know that hamburger, because there is no surface per se, has to be cooked to proper temperatures THROUGHOUT, unlike a steak, where only the outside need to be so cooked.

In the "old days", if you failed to protect yourself, you got sick.   Many of you have had a "24 hour bug" that was really food poisoning.  

Of course, in the old days, if your kid fell off my kid's swingset, you didn't sue me.   Nowadays, you can't call a lawyer fast enough...

And so it goes.....   The end of this company, massive layoffs, people out of work.......because of the liabilities of morons not cooking hamburger thoroughly.

This is the tip of the iceberg.  Want to know why the cost of living is so high in the US?   It's the cost of trying to make every single product idiot proof.   We are all paying for the morons....    and their vote counts the same as ours.

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by storch
the problem is that kids no longer play outside.  it is really nothing that eating a mouthful of a dirt every day would not solve.  sheesh you guys are weak.

I was having a friendly conversation with a doctor and it seems there may be some truth to this.

We have become so clean obsessed that for many their bodies are no longer naturally developing antibodies to resist alot of stuff.

Unless your performing surgery. You dont need to have everything sterile clean

[lazs2]

the longer and safer we want to live the more it will cost.   storch is actually correct on this one as are many others.  

You want affordable health care?  get 1950's level health care and.. hang the lawyers.   Need some $3,000 a month drug to live?  sorry... you gonna die.

need a transplant?  sorry.. can't do em.   Health care would be about $75 a month for full coverage.

lazs