It just goes to show you, when the government doesn’t believe in regulations…Regulations go by the wayside and enforcement becomes mute…

Whole Foods Market pulled fresh ground beef from all of its stores Friday, becoming the latest retailer affected by an E. coli outbreak traced to Nebraska Beef, one of the nation’s largest meatpackers. It’s the second outbreak linked to the processor in as many months.

The meat Whole Foods recalled came from Coleman Natural Foods, which unbeknownst to Whole Foods had processed it at Nebraska Beef, an Omaha meatpacker with a history of food-safety and other violations. Nebraska Beef last month recalled more than 5 million pounds of beef produced in May and June after its meat was blamed for another E. coli outbreak in seven states. On Friday it recalled an additional 1.2 million pounds of beef produced on June 17, June 24 and July 8, which included products eventually sold to Whole Foods. The recall is not related to the recent spate of E. coli illnesses among Boy Scouts at a gathering in Goshen, Va.

Whole Foods Recalls Beef Processed At Plant Long at Odds With USDA – washingtonpost.com.

The state of our food industry just keeps getting better doesn’t it? This just proves that no matter who grows the cattle, how they are fed, how humainly they are raised, in the end it’s the processing that has the final say in the safety of our food. And when it comes to the processing we depend on our government to inspect the plants…How’s that working for you now?

Like most of our industrial food system, the consolidation of the industry has consequences. Usually, food safety is one of them and it’s not an improvement. Does it seem to you like it does to me, that more and more, when the government turns over it’s safety responcibilities to private industry, it’s the public that pays the bill…