The Fifteen Headed Beast

The first blog in an ongoing series about you and your food.

Most Americans assume that not only is the food they buy safe, but that the government is protecting them by performing inspections, recalls and releasing warnings.

Most Americans are wrong though.

Were you aware that there is more than just the FDA helping with food regulation? Actually there are 15 different government organizations that all have a hand in the basket of food regulation. I think we can all agree that even having two different government agencies try to share responsibility seems terrifying much less 15. Look at the Dept. of Homeland Security and how well (please read that with extreme sarcasm) it interacts with just a handful of other agencies. Now consider that when you go to the grocery store, the items that you are placing in your cart have more than a dozen agencies trying to share the responsibility of keeping you safe. Some items are even regulated by more than one agency at a time!

So I bet you’re wondering, “How well do these 15 agencies really protect us?” Not as good as you would hope is probably the answer. According to a recent study performed by the USDA, 24% of all cut up chicken parts are contaminated by some form of Salmonella. Yes you read that correctly. One in four pieces of cut up chicken you bring home has Salmonella.
Certainly at this point you are asking yourself “Well how could this be?!” The answer is simple, there are no regulations setting a limit of the amount of Salmonella for cut up chicken…. NONE. Even items like ground turkey have a limit, albeit the limit is 49.9% but still, there is at least a number there.

A lot of regular citizens concerned about their food safety are now turning to their last hope for change, attorneys. The New Yorker just published a 6 page article all about these problems and in it stated

“When regulation fails, private litigation can be the most powerful force for change.”

When regulation fails to protect (or in the case of cut up chicken, does not even exist) hitting the pockets of big corporations is the only way you can get them to change. Here at our law firm we have represented many clients over the years that have had to deal with some sort of “unsafe” food condition that has harmed either them or a loved one. Each time we take a case, it is because there were known procedures that, when followed, could have been used to prevent any harm from happening and yet someone chose to ignore it. Now, I must state the easiest way to protect yourself is to cook your food to an appropriate temperature. But even then there are some bacteria and pathogens that can hurt you.
As always, we are here to help the people in our community in their times of needs. If you ever have a problem with a food safety issue please do not hesitate to contact our firm for a free consultation. To be honest however, we would be much happier if things like this just didn’t happen and to do that we need to change the system and we need to do this together. For now, the Fifteen Headed Beast sits atop the mountain of bureaucracy and it is up to each of us to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

Many people in the scientific community believe only about 1 in 28 people that suffer from a food borne illness even report it. The problem has become prolific in America and our government is not doing enough to protect us.