Comment on the comment of
Boar's Head story on SOTT today:
Background: I work for a chicken production company. I do not work in the plant, but due to my role in supply chain I do get a decent glimpse into quality assurance and plant issues.
My issue with the article itself is that it isn't specific:
1. "Blood on the floor" - could be anywhere. Depending on where you are in the plant, blood on the floor is normal, such as in "1st processing" i.e. the steps taken to hang, stun, kill, gut, and defeather a bird.
2. "Bugs" - while obviously not ideal, any plant could get flies in them especially during the heat of summer. Our plant gets flies on occasion, we take counter measures, and usually it really isn't a big deal.
3. "Mold" - Any processing plant should easily be able to get rid of mold. What I find curious about the mold claim is that USDA inspectors are on site every day, customers of Boar's Head likely frequently visit their plants to ensure quality of product, Boar's Head has it's own QA team on site every day... there are just to many interested groups to miss a
significant mold issue. It just strikes me as suspect. Could they have found a little mold in a couple of corners? That seems more reasonable to me.
4. "A rancid smell in the receiving cooler with significant blood" - to an outsider, on the surface this is repulsive, but this isn't a terribly unusual instance. Sometimes product gets lost and it spoils. Sometimes very large boxes (think ~1,600lbs) break and spill on the floor.
5. "Condensation and clogged drains" - again, these are totally normal problems. Condensation is always an issue in the summer. Clogged drains are a weekly occurrence.
6. "69 instances of non-compliance" - while this sounds like an awful lot, it does not give a timeline for these non-compliances. Were these for the entire year? or just the past two weeks? Some non-compliances have nothing to do with food safety, some non-compliances are small issues, and some non-compliances are serious issues. Don't quote me on this yet, as I'll do some digging but I'd guess that 50-100 non-compliances is "normal" for an older plant.
7. "VDACS said over the past year it took 12 samples from the plant to a USDA lab for testing and that they all came back negative for listeria." - How does VDACS take 12 samples over the course of a year that all come back negative and then a "huge" listeria outbreak happens? I don't know, but it is curious.
Summary: while the article paints a pretty bleak picture, it could also just as well describe my company's plant and we've never had any serious pathogen issues. In fact,
this article could probably describe any aging meat processing facility in the US.
I mean, they recalled 7 million lbs of meat! If everyone made a 1/4lb sandwich, that is 28 million sandwich's and only 66 (9 dead, 55 hospitalized) people got sick? That's 0.0002%! With people's immune systems the way they are they could have got listeria from tap water for all we know. So, I personally would lean heavily to the side of this story being highly suspect per the Sott editors comments:
Comment: No doubt the facility was contaminated. That seems crystal clear. But it begs curiosity as to how/why high-end meat products of a nationally-renowned supplier tested positive for a food-borne bacterial illness to this extent. We know meat/poultry facilities are mysteriously burning to the ground, herds and flocks are being exterminated, alt meat has made its debut and farm/ranch lands are being bought up by Bill Gates. Is there any connection?
A new facet? Threat by example? Or, just sloppy neglect causing deadly-tainted salami.
FYI:
CDC estimates that each year in the United States 1,600 people are infected with Listeria, and 260 people die from the infection.
www.farmaid.org
