USDA Found Cargill Salmonella in ‘10.

News about the recent recall of 36 million pounds of salmonella contaminated turkey meat just keeps getting worse and it appears that USDA is partly to blame.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the USDA knew about the deadly salmonella contamination at Cargill in 2010 but didn’t issue a recall until August 3rd of 2011. “We have constraints when it comes to salmonella,” says USDA Health official Elizabeth Hagen. It turns out that salmonella is not necessarily considered a food contaminant until it kills or injures someone. Fast-forward to summer 2011, 1 person is dead and 77 people are seriously ill from eating Cargill turkey.

In 2010, the USDA found salmonella in the turkey tests at the packing plant in Arkansas and at four grocery store tests around the country. They failed to even notify Cargill until July 29th, 2011. Cargill, at least in this case, acted fast to impose a recall and it was actually the USDA who dragged their feet.

The fact that the presence of salmonella on a product isn’t cause for a recall until someone gets hurt makes me think there’s probably salmonella on lots of products and the USDA is just playing Russian roulette.