ConAgra's plants which produce pot pies have no intestines on their facilities. The pathogen arrived at ConAgra's plants in the form of previously contaminated meat. Will USDA traceback to the slaughter plant SOURCE of contamination? No. USDA is perfectly comfortable assessing all enforcement actions against the downline DESTINATION of pathogen-contaminated meat. Until USDA aggressively implements a proactive traceback to the slaughterhouse ORIGIN of enteric bacteria like salmonella and e.coli, consumers are virtually guaranteed numerous future recurrences of sicknesses and recalls.

2007's dramatic increase in e.coli recalls reveals the same pattern. The majority of e.coli recalls, many of which entailed hundreds of thousands of pounds (one was over 5 million, another over 21 million) occurred at downline, further processing non-slaughter plants. These further processing plants (like ConAgra's pot pie plant) are at the total mercy of the sanitation standards in place at their SOURCE slaughter supplier plants. Furthermore, when this meat arrives at the downline plants, the bacteria are invisible and can only be detected via microbial sampling, but plants cannot test 100 % of the meat, or no meat would be left to process. The ultimate irony in this scenario is that all meat purchased from the SOURCE slaughter plants arrives at the downstream plant in containers marked with USDA's official Mark of Inspection which says "USDA Inspected and Passed". At one time, the Mark of Inspection was synonymous with guaranteed wholesomeness.

The plethora of lawsuits which have occurred as a result of outbreaks show that the Mark of Inspection is no guarantee of product safety/wholesomeness. Furthermore, USDA's adroit avoidance of performing tracebacks to the SOURCE of contamination reveals that the agency intentionally insulates the slaughter house origin of contamination, while hammering the downline DESTINATION plants for operating an allegedly unsafe production plant.

Americans have grown accustomed to $3 gasoline. We also need to grow accustomed to increased numbers of salmonella and e.coli recalls and sicknesses. This will continue until USDA accepts their congressional mandate to protect the public from food-borne outbreaks. Right now, USDA is more concerned in protecting the multi-national slaughter corporations which enjoy political connections and the financial werewithal to engage the agency in protracted litigation.

John Munsell, Manager
Foundation for Accountability in Regulatory Enforcement (FARE)
Miles City, MT