How to Avoid Food Poisoning
In the age of deregulation
It’s not your imagination.
Outbreaks of foodborne diseases are happening practically everywhere as products get recalled for listeria, salmonella, and E. coli. Deli meat. Waffles. Eggs. Fast food. Now salmon. In many cases, the USDA and FDA know about the problems beforehand, but they refuse to take action.
For example, Boar’s Head recalled deli meats in July after their products killed 10 people. The USDA knew one of their processing plants was failing basic sanitation inspections, and their equipment was contaminated. They also knew the failures posed an “imminent threat” to food safety.
They did nothing.
By the way, guess what makes you more prone to food poisoning? A weakened immune system. So does being pregnant.
As a piece in Vox admits, food recalls have been increasing since the start of the pandemic, and they’re near record highs. Continuing to let an immune-dysregulating virus spread around the world is creating a future where outbreaks of listeria, salmonella, and E. Coli happen much more often.
It doesn’t help that Trump deregulated the food industry, and that Biden kept those lax policies in place while further loosening guidelines. According to USDA records, “Biden administration officials quietly made significant cuts to planned testing for germs across America’s food supply.” Food inspection services operate under the USDA, and they’ve been hiring fewer inspectors while also cutting hours to avoid paying their employees overtime. Trump’s deregulation “dramatically increased profits for meatpacking companies” by removing inspection requirements and speeding up processing and packaging.
The CDC, USDA, and FDA have dropped the ball numerous times over the last several years. As ProPublica reported, the CDC closed an investigation into salmonella poisoning in the middle of an outbreak in 2018. The USDA “said nothing to consumers about the growing threat. So supermarkets and restaurants continued selling chicken tainted with drug-resistant infantis,” a form of salmonella “invincible against nearly all the drugs that doctors routinely use to fight severe food poisoning.” The reporters concluded that our food safety systems are “largely toothless” and “ill-equipped to protect consumers or rebuff industry influence.” The alarming spread and spillover of H5N1 bird flu underscores that.
It would’ve made sense to radically increase funding for food inspection back in 2022, after bacterial contamination triggered a major shortage of baby formula. Apparently, that didn’t happen. Instead, the current administration has presided over continued weakening of inspections, even if they say otherwise. If you want conclusive evidence, just look at all of these recalls. If we’re going to protect ourselves and our families, we need to learn an important lesson.
Nobody in politics cares about us.
Nobody.