Saturday, October 08, 2011

USDA Farmers Market Sells Contaminated Food

Outside the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, government workers and tourists shop for fresh produce, poultry, baked goods and other items at the Friday farmers market the agency sponsors. Like farmers markets around the country, this one is thriving, due in part to the perception — not supported by science — that locally grown food is healthier than the mass-produced products found on grocery store shelves. But customers of this market, operated by one of the lead agencies in charge of enforcing the nation’s food safety rules, have been buying leaking bags of uninspected raw chicken with salmonella on it, according to tests conducted by a commercial laboratory for News21 during the summer of 2011. Also sold at the market: eggs sitting out in 90- and 100-degree temperatures in cartons bearing the USDA-mandated warning that they be refrigerated at all times. The problem is not confined to this one site. A few blocks away near the White House, at the farmers market where Michelle Obama promoted a healthy-eating campaign two years ago, chicken tainted with campylobacter bacteria was being sold, the laboratory found. Campylobacter and salmonella are two of the most common causes of food poisoning, sickening more than a million people in the U.S. each year, according to government estimates. Most victims recover without treatment, but severe infections can result in hospitalization and, in extreme cases, death...more

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