Buckle up for a deep dive. We have some of the safest food in the US, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues. Here’s what’s going on right now.
Listeria is a bacteria that can be found in many different areas like soil and water. It can also infect foods. Most people will have symptoms that are flu-like and can have intestinal symptoms. Around 260 people die every year. Unlike some other bacteria, listeria is cold tolerant; food stored in the refrigerator will not kill off the bacteria.
As of last week, 23 brands of deli meats and many produce items were being recalled. Boar’s Head brand has recalled over 7 million pounds of its products.
For some reference, that’s equivalent to:
3,500 cars: Assuming an average car weight of 2,000 pounds.
175 blue whales: The largest animal on Earth weighs around 400,000 pounds.
35,000 adult humans: The average adult human weighs about 200 pounds.
Dozens of people have been hospitalized and so far two people have died. That’s likely an undercount because many people will not have gone to the hospital when getting sick. While today is Tuesday, August 6th, this issue goes back to May 10th. That’s over two months this has been going on. That may seem surprising, but it’s not. It takes that long for people to start getting sick and to trace that back to a source.
How did this happen? We don’t know right now, and we may never know. There are plenty of ways listeria and other food-borne pathogens can get to our foods. Including pests spreading it around.
It’s going to result in millions, if not billions of dollars lost by the companies involved. It’s not just the cost of the recalled products. (some quick math if a pound of lunchmeat costs $10, that’s over $70 million dollars. There is also the cost of disposing of all that product, cleaning and disinfecting the production facilities, and the loss of sales from consumers not wanting to risk buying the products. In addition, there’s talk of a class action lawsuit. That means there are significant legal costs and potential payouts to add to the total. It’s unknown at this point if there will be any fines leveled against the companies involved and if they are found to be at fault, there could be. The Dollar Tree saga resulted in a $42 million dollar fine.
It’s hard to justify the cost of prevention. It takes time (and time is money) to clean, do QA testing, perform quality pest control, and other methods of preventing contamination. If it’s not done, there is the risk of something going horribly wrong.
Bottom line, invest in quality pest control services! And contact us if you want to chat about what that looks like with an independent assessment and training.
Lagniappe - give your friends listeria or other food-borne pathogens.
Urban Pest Consulting
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