Food System

U.S. and Canada, under wraps the biggest recall of 2018

January 18, 2019

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Food security, Year 2018. The largest recall of unsafe food products has flared up in USA and Canada, under tombly silence. The case
McCain

deserves some reflections.

McCain, the unnamed anointed one

McCain, a prosperous multinational corporation based in Ontario, Canada, has challenged several sectors of the food supply chain in North America with its frozen vegetables. Secondary processing industries, packers, retail and food service. All fell like stupid pins in a suburban bowling alley in the freezing autumn.

At the root of the trouble

The historic enemies of the shabbiest freezer facilities, listeria

and salmonella

. (2) Whose lack of controls led to the recall of everything left over from the entire production of nearly three years (January 2016 to October 2018!) of the McCain plant in Colton, California, USA.

111 million euros the value total of products under recall, according to conservative estimates. (2) 146 different types of foods, made by dozens of operators – on behalf of giants such as Whole Foods at Wal Mart, Safeway-with the contaminated vegetables distributed everywhere. Fallout numbers, which place this recall at the top of the 2018 global rankings. (3)

Millions of references have been affected by the recall in the US and Canada. Ready-made dishes made of ‘pasta’ (if you can call overseas Italian sounding slop, sic!) and grains, ready-made salads and sandwiches stuffed with pathogenic microorganisms. Without any of the giants involved performing any sampling and analysis, in the due exercise of self-control. In the unstoppable slumber of public authorities.

Domino effect. All down on the ground

Food safety is a prerequisite to the marketing of all kinds of food and beverages. The basic rules to guard it were shared 40 years ago by all FAO and WHO member countries at the special Codex Alimentarius Commission. Where the foundations of Food Hygiene, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and HACCP were laid. (4)

Self-control is the cornerstone of any system to guarantee the food safety and must be applied by all operators in the agribusiness chain, from farm to fork, none excluded. It is therefore effectively demanded, in Europe at least, by FBOs.

(food business operators), distributors

and public traders

.

Across the Atlantic the reality is different, in all evidence. And it is not the writer who theorizes this, but the data offered by the star government agency that confirms it. In fact, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that 1 in 6 people in the U.S. is affected by a foodborne illness each year. A hit in the drum, Russian roulette, everyone down on the floor. (5)

‘
CDC estimates 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases each year in the United States.’

Domino effect. The McCain case, in corroborating the infamous statistic above, demonstrates how the widespread irresponsibility of operators and regulators, in a system lacking proper safeguards, can cause serious public health problems. With the added mockery of silence on the name of the giant greaser who caused the trouble.

‘

It’s globalization, beautiful!’

‘

It’s globalization,

beauty?‘ No thanks, not in our house, we will bring real noodles from home on our next trip there. There are still those who believe that the

CETA

Has been a great deal for Europe

.

Court jesters, in Rome and Brussels, they say everything is fine. That the system to guarantee the food safety, across the Atlantic, is comparable to ours. They close their eyes, out of obvious convenience

, on glyphosate lentils

and other critical issues

. (6) And they revive liberalist agreements without precautions.. But lies come to the surface; they cannot be trusted.

European ConsumAtors

have a fortiori the sacrosanct right to know the

origin

of products and the origin of their raw materials, on labels and on menus

. Free to choose but regionally viewed. #EatORIGINal! Unmask your food!

Dario Dongo

Notes

(1) On salmonella and multi-antibiotic resistance (MDR,

Multiple Drug Resistance

), see the previous article

https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/salute/salmonella-e-antibiotico-resistenza

(2) For more on the severity and extent of the food security crisis described, see.

https://newfoodeconomy.org/mccain-foods-salmonella-listeria-recall-2018/?utm_source=New+Food+Economy+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c78bb41598-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_01_03_06_11&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_75a28a0eaf-c78bb41598-511536425

(3) McCain thus surpassed the world’s leading meat producer, JBS. Which, in late 2018, recalled 5,443 tons of meat derived from 13,000 cattle from its Tolleson (Arizona, USA) plant. Due to a salmonella contamination that caused 246 confirmed toxins in 24 U.S. states

(4) See Codex Alimentarius Commission on Food Hygiene, documents:

– General principles of food hygiene

(CAC/RCP 1-1969),

http://www.fao.org/input/download/standards/23/CXP_001e.pdf

–

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point

(HACCP) system and guidelines for its application.

(CAC/RCP 1-1969 Rev. 3-1997),

http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y1579e/y1579e03.htm

(5) Cf. CDC,

Estimate of foodborne illness in the United States.

,

https://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/estimates-overview.html

(6) There has also been silence, outside of our site, about

Italian sounding

, counterfeits of

Made in Italy

and its legitimations by the European Commission, with the approval of Matteo Renzi and Paolo Gentiloni, Maurizio Martina and Carlo Calenda. See the articles

https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/ceta-italian-sounding-e-contraffazione

,

https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/ceta-il-made-in-italy-tradito