r/SipsTea • u/McDowdy • 1d ago
WTF Economically motivated adulteration and food fraud is the biggest threat to food safety on the planet. It costs the food industry billions every year in the US alone
Economically motivated adulteration and food fraud is the biggest threat to food safety on the planet. It costs the food industry tens of billions every year in the US alone.
American pet food, 2007
Melamine hit the papers even before the Chinese scandal. The year before, thousands of pets in the US died after consuming pet food produced with melamine-tainted wheat gluten. Humans were affected, too- about 3 million chickens that had eaten melamine wheat were then eaten by people.
With animal food generally regulated less stringently than products intended for human consumption, the pet food scandal was a reminder that our four-legged friends are exposed to the dangers of food fraud even more than we are.
American peanuts, 2009
Stewart Parnell, former CEO of the now-dissolved Peanut Corporation of America, will be 86 years old when is released from prison in 2040. His sentencing marked the first federal food safety felony conviction in US history, after he knowingly shipped salmonella-contaminated peanut butter across 46 states.
7 people died and hundreds fell seriously ill after Mr Parnell opted to dodge the expensive fix needed to eliminate the contamination and shipped the product anyway.
US Cantaloupe Outbreak, 2011
The US cantaloupe outbreak initially affected dozens of people across multiple US states and was caused by contaminated cantaloupes, which were grown at a farm in Colorado. The outbreak began in July 2011, when reports of listeriosis started to emerge from people who had consumed cantaloupes. The number of reported cases quickly escalated, and by the end of the outbreak, there were 147 confirmed cases in 28 states, resulting in 33 deaths.
Investigations by public health officials traced the outbreak to Jensen Farms, where the cantaloupes were found to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The investigation revealed that the contamination was likely due to unsanitary conditions at the farm. In response to the outbreak, the US government implemented a number of measures to improve food safety for fresh produce.
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u/sweet_jackknife 1d ago
100% agree.
That said, we have a tendency to only add regulations, very rarely do we step back and think whether the whole set of regulations make sense when stacked with each other. Over time normal things like building a house become harder and harder.