The Latest Bad News about Meat

On May 22, 2002, NBC's popular news magazine, Dateline, aired a segment entitled "The Dating Game." The segment was the result of a five month long hidden camera investigation into how some of the nation's largest grocery chains have been changing the sell-by dates of packages of poultry and fish to extend their shelf life.

One of the most shocking aspects of Dateline's investigation is the fact that these were not a few isolated events, but that this has been happening on a wide-scale. It is common knowledge that meat is a breeding ground for bacteria, like E Coli and salmonella. Both of these bacteria can cause serious illness and even death. So if meat has past its sell-by date and people are being tricked into thinking that it is still fresh, they are obviously putting themselves and their families in danger by eating this spoiled meat.

In response to concerns about this very serious problem, a spokeswoman for the grocery industry was quoted by Dateline as saying, "consumers don't need to worry about this because proper cooking destroys bacteria on food. In other words, it doesn't matter if we are selling you rotten, spoiled meat because all you have to do is cook it long enough and everything will be fine.

Dateline's producer actually took some of the re-dated meat and fish to a microbiologist for testing and he had this to say, "The industry is playing Russian Roulette with consumers' health."

A related story on the meat industry was reported by MSNBC recently. This story focused on a new study by the Public Citizen and the Government Accountability, which found that the USDA's meat safety system is "fundamentally deceiving the public with false reassurances" about the safety of meat and that it is basically a "don't look, don't find" policy.

The report concluded that the USDA waited weeks and even months to take corrective action at plants that had clearly flunked safety tests. Under current USDA rules, ground beef processors are considered to have failed the safety test, if six of the 53 meat samples test positive for bacteria. However, even if the USDA finds that the first six samples test positive for bacteria, the USDA does not consider a plant to have failed until all 53 samples have been tested. The process of testing the remaining samples can take months and this means that the plant can still go on selling its contaminated meat.

In response to the assertion that the meat industry is selling meat which is contaminated with salmonella, Patrick Bolye, president of the American Meat Institute, had this to say in their defense: "If the presence or absence of salmonella on a raw product were a measure of whether a product is a safe or unsafe, then the government would be forced to require that only canned and cooked foods be sold." In other words, don't worry about it because salmonella poisoning is just part of the American way of life."

A third story reports how a Canadian researcher has found evidence that eating as little as one meal a week of farmed salmon could be dangerous. According to the study, farmed salmon have very high levels of PCBs. The researcher believes that the high levels of PCBs can be traced to the feed that the fish have been eating. It turns out that the fish feed contains fish oil and fishmeal, which is intended to fatten the fish and promote rapid growth, but has the added consequence of making the fish more toxic.

PCBs are extremely toxic and are particularly dangerous to women of childbearing age and children. These chemicals have been known to suppress the immune-system and have negative effects on the mental development of children. The researcher did find that wild salmon did have lower levels of PCBs than the farmed salmon, but the wild salmon also have dangerously high levels of mercury. So much for the idea that eating salmon is healthy!

As you can see, all of these stories make it clear that eating meat poses many risks to your health, as well as the health of your family. If you aren't ready to completely rid your diet of meat, you should at least consider reducing the amount of meat you eat. Why not come in to Down to Earth and try out one of healthy soy-based meat substitutes. We have many varieties of meatless burgers, hot dogs, and even fish that could make a perfectly healthy addition to your summer cookouts.