Reminder: US food is shit: At least 10 people sickened in US listeria outbreak linked to prepared foods
Reminder: US food is shit: At least 10 people sickened in US listeria outbreak linked to prepared foods
FDA investigating outbreak linked to products sold in Arizona, California, Nevada and Washington
I mean, I agree, but listeria is a common pathogen in prepared foods and unpasteurized dairy. It occasionally escapes pasteurization, too. Just last year, Canada had an outbreak of listeria as well, coming from a plant in Pickering, and it killed at least three people.
Definitely Buy Local, but this isn't what makes US foods shit.
This article is terrible, too. It says that ten people were hospitalized, but partway into the article, you get this nugget:
The FDA found that six of the 10 people who got sick had been hospitalized before becoming ill with listeria.
So they're juicing the hospitalizations to make the numbers scarier. There's a conversation to be had about listeria-laden food being served to patients, but listeria itself is an industry-wide problem that even developed countries still deal with.
The full paragraph that you cut off is:
The FDA found that six of the 10 people who got sick had been hospitalized before becoming ill with listeria. The FDA found that items made by Fresh & Ready Foods had been served in at least three of the healthcare facilities where the patients had been previously treated.
Which very clearly indicates not that they're juicing the numbers, but that the prepared food supplier sold their contaminated food products to hospitals where they got patients sick.
It occasionally escapes pasteurization, too.
That's not the case in pickering.
During the course of its investigation, the CFIA discovered that the facility did not properly implement environmental swabbing and finished product testing in adherence to Health Canada's Policy on Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods, which is why the CFIA is closely following up to ensure corrective actions are completed and necessary safety measures are in place.
Further, I understand your frustration at the statistics being manipulated somewhat, but listeria really is a public threat and should be taken very seriously.
Absolutely, it is very serious. Just pointing out that OP's argument that US food is shit because of listeria is not sound.
There are many reasons why US food is terrible, but we don't need to invent imaginary ones to point that out.
What is really scary is what the united states is now doing to their food products:
US products are no longer being properly inspected or tracked for food borne illness. Consume american food at your own risk.
https://www.nphic.org/news/news-highlights/2326-fda-making-plans-to-end-its-routine-food-safety-inspections
US FDA suspends milk quality tests amid workforce cuts
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-fda-suspends-milk-quality-tests-amid-workforce-cuts-2025-04-21/
US FDA suspends food safety quality checks after staff cuts
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-fda-suspends-food-safety-quality-checks-after-staff-cuts-2025-04-17/
There are more examples just search “US FDA suspends” on Yahoo or other search engines as Google is parsing responses to make it look all is well in Ba Sing Se, um, er, I mean america.
If only we had paved the way to food and drug regulations with blood & hard lessons...
I'm looking forward to the amended 120 year anniversary copy of The Jungle.
Hopefully republicans get visited by 3 food poisonings.
It's never the people who deserve the karma who get sick, though.