‘Pink slime’ uproar overshadows more serious food safety threats
After the product formerly known as “lean finely textured beef” came to be known as “pink slime,” it quickly became unwelcome in many grocery stores, school cafeterias and fast-food chains.
Opponents of the filler enjoyed their media moment, but when the slime settled, so to speak, the victory seemed pretty empty: Even food safety advocates readily admit that pink slime is probably safer, if less appetizing, than the rest of raw ground beef.
What’s unsatisfying about the episode is that so many other aspects of food production are crying out for change, including problems that have sickened and killed tens of thousands of people over the past decade. Powerful special interests, aided by a compliant Congress and slow-footed bureaucrats, have deftly stood in the way. Without yucky names to gin up public attention, though, the problems go begging for solutions that never come.
Exhibit A is the long-running battle over rampant overuse of antibiotics in animal feed. The drugs are used cavalierly to keep pigs, cattle and poultry healthy. The problem? Routine use of antibiotics makes some bacteria stronger and resistant to treatment. When those hardy bacteria infect a person, antibiotics — medicine’s miracle drugs — might no longer work.
Way back in 1977, the Food and Drug Administration withdrew approval of two popular antibiotics for routine use in animals. But in 35 years, it never bothered to follow up, and the problem has gotten worse. Last year, 167 Americans were sickened and one died from major outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant disease linked to ground turkey and beef.
When the FDA finally took action last week, it called for drug companies to voluntarily stop selling antibiotics for unnecessary animal use. The FDA insists the industry is ready for change. But will drugmakers and farmers really agree to give up tens of millions of dollars in profit without a mandate from government?
Plenty of other food safety problems have gone wanting, including:
-The failure to require a label on pork and beef that has been mechanically tenderized by poking hundreds of thin needles into a large piece of meat. The method can push bacteria from the surface to the interior, where only cooking to a higher temperature can kill it. Consumers don’t know when they’re getting such meat. Despite warnings since 2009 about the dangers, the USDA is just now promising to propose labels by summer — the start of a long process.
-The failure to meet a deadline for new rules to implement the food safety law signed in January 2011. Since 2006, thousands have been sickened by contaminated spinach, peanuts and fruit — listeria on cantaloupe killed 30 people — and the new law could prevent repeats. Congress set hard deadlines for the rules; the FDA has already missed the first by more than three months.
Food safety advocates joked last month that they need to brainstorm more catchy titles like pink slime. How about “mutant germs” instead of “antibiotic-resistant bacteria”? Short of that, it shouldn’t take PR ploys to get government and industry to do what needs to be done.