A small rant regarding Topps....

[catnhatnh]

...My brother and I run an itty-bitty 18' long hot dog trailer in New Hampshire where we have already been inspected by our local health inspector twice this year.We have paid nearly $200 dollars for licenses and almost $1000 for liability insurance to sell less than $30,000 dollars in food, ALL OF WHICH is appearently produced by people whom need not carry the same liability nor submit to the same scrutiny we do.....
Topps is folding after recalling 20 million pounds of meat.Infected, sick, killing, meat. You must ask yourself how the largest producer of ground meat in the United States was allowed to operate with LESS OVERSIGHT than a small burger trailer and without insurance enough to cover their mistakes. In honesty, A true and horrible mistake on our part could cause far more harm than the one million dollars damage that is the cap of our policy. But we both chose and were required to insure to the point that catastrophe alone would overide our cap....
If we assume a $1 a pound wholesale price for their sales, and also assume all their meat for the last quarter were involved, than we derive a yearly sale of over 80 million dollars-I had to spend 3% for my liability-I wonder if spending nearly 2.5 million to cover their hamburger might have saved them?

[valerief]

1. Obviously they could buy their way out of oversight. Besides, the

meat industry is self-regulating. The fox is definitely guarding the henhouse in all areas of this country.

[catnhatnh]

3. Oddly enough...

I was willing to self-regulate, but was foiled and forced to wipe down the exterior of my microwave... (score 96)

[rockymountaindem]

2. Good post, but

the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Plus, this kind of thing extends to lots of sectors of the economy. Just ask a doctor about his or her malpractice insurance bill, and then try and wrap your head around that whole Vioxx recall thing.

[catnhatnh]

4. Yep, I get where you are coming from...

But the bigger they are,the easier it is.That is economy of scale.In my trailer,it is just my brother and I watching all over for health hazards...square foot wise less,but process wise a ton of shit to cover.They only had to observe that the cold meat was kept cold, the grinding machines were kept clean, and that the ground products were kept cold.And with a shitload of employees at every point.And at even that, they failed.
Editted for spelling since appearently english is not my strong suit/

[achtung_circus]

5. For some context

during later high school and during university my summer job was in the plant that produced all of (a huge company's) hamburger patties for Canada. We produced 80,000# per shift, 2 shifts a day. The third shift was a complete plant clean-down.

Based on very simple multiplication that means the plant could produce 40,000,000 per year. That involved taking boxed boneless beef, grinding, mixing, forming, flash-freezing and packing. It was not rocket science and we operated under one meat inspector, who due to the relatively small physical size of the plant, was able to watch almost everything, almost all the time.

Staying clean, and keeping product clean was simple.

I think it probable that contamination likely occurred on or shortly after the kill floor. I don't know whether Topps did that in-house or outsourced its meat.

[Kagemusha]

6. This case is exactly why I believe in good government regulation.

It's not just government finding ways to impose costs on the industry. It's also to protect these industries from man-made catastrophe. I'm not the slightest bit surprised to see that this is the result of a poor regulatory regime, demanded and received by the (big) meat industry.