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Title: Mystery Meat: What Is In Your Grocer's Freezer?
Source:
CBS/AP
URL Source: http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_335150552.html
Published: Dec 1, 2006
Author: staff
Post Date: 2006-12-01 15:33:09 by mirage
Keywords: Diversity, Multiculturalism, Relativism
Views: 280
Comments: 22
(CBS/AP) NEW YORK When a food safety inspector walked into a market in Queens, he noticed the store had an interesting special posted on its front window: 12 beefy armadillos. In Brooklyn, inspectors found 15 pounds of iguana meat at a West Indian market and 200 pounds of cow lungs for sale at another market. At a West African grocery in Manhattan, the store was selling smoked rodent meat from a refrigerated display case. An inspector quickly seized a couple pounds of it. All of it was headed for the dinner table. All of it was also illegal. Authorities said the discoveries are part of a larger trend in which markets across New York are buying meat and other foods from unregulated sources and selling them to an immigrant population accustomed to more exotic fare. State regulators have responded by stepping up enforcement, confiscating 65 percent more food through September than they did in all of 2005. The seizures also cast a spotlight on the eating habits of this ethnically diverse city, where everything from turtles and fish paste to frogs and duck feet make their way onto people's plates. "At one time or another, we've probably seen about everything," said Joseph Corby, director of the state's Division of Food Safety and Inspection. In an attempt to stamp out the activity, Corby's agency has ramped up efforts, working with the Food and Drug Administration, to prevent this illicit food from reaching store shelves. Instead of just hitting the retailers, Corby said, his inspectors are also targeting warehouses that receive imported products -- Russian, Asian and African -- from where the food is distributed. So far, it appears his campaign has been effective. In the first nine months of the year, inspectors across the state seized 1.6 million pounds of food, destroying about 81 percent of it. Last year, the state seized only 976,076 pounds of food. Food taken by the Corby's inspectors lacked proper labeling or didn't come from a government-licensed or inspected source. Other food was destroyed because of the way it was processed or prepared, like chicken smoked in the home and placed on sale. Such food can spread nasty bacteria like salmonella or botulism. The rules vary from animal to animal. Bush meat, or anything killed in the wild, is typically illegal, Corby said. Eating endangered or threatened species like as gorilla and chimpanzee -- whose meat is occasionally found in New York -- is against the law. But turtles, frogs, iguana and armadillos can be eaten under one condition: The meat must come from a licensed and inspected facility. "We have yet to find too many of these places," Corby said. In a city filled with clusters of people hailing from all over the world, these rules can get lost in translation. The problem is particularly acute in the ethnic neighborhoods of New York City, where newly arrived and enterprising immigrants open up food shops, stocking their shelves with savory favorites relished in their native lands. State sanitary inspection reports dating back to 2001 reveal a widespread appetite for this potentially dangerous food. On a bustling stretch of Manhattan's Chinatown, Bor Kee Food Market has been caught selling unidentified red meat and mysterious fish paste, which is used in Asian recipes. Down the street at Dahing Seafood Market, inspectors have found frogs being sold from an unapproved source. And next door, authorities spotted crates of turtles and a large tub of bullfrogs being sold without proper invoices. Inside Kam Lun Food Products in Queens, inspectors discovered questionable turtles and frogs and a clue: "Label on animal boxes states China Air Cargo," the inspector wrote in his report. "That's a no-no because there is absolutely no monitoring of the standards in these places," said Dr. Philip Tierno, author of "The Secret Life of Germs: Observations and Lessons from a Microbe Hunter," and director of clinical microbiology at New York University Medical Center. "It's subject to the vagaries of whoever is processing the food. Who's watching?" Singed chicken was also common in these ethnic enclaves. This is chicken that has been singed with fire to remove any excess feathers or stems from a bird. Singed chicken is prohibited because it appears cooked. At the West African Grocery -- where "smoked rodent" was found -- the owner failed to explain why he was selling the mysterious meat, saying he couldn't speak English. But he could apparently read the sanitary inspection report and the word "rodent." "I don't know what that is," the owner said. "I don't sell that here." A similar exchange played out at another market in Brooklyn called Chang Xiang Trading. When confronted with reports showing the store has sold illegal pork, chicken and ducks, the manager, shrugged her shoulders. Her English was not good, she said. Sung Soo Kim, president of Korean American Small Business Service Center of New York, said it's hard to change eating habits that are centuries-old. Kim runs a state-approved food safety education program and has delivered seminars to the Korean community about food laws. Corby said education is key -- along with fines -- in getting owners to pass inspections and stop buying and selling illegal food. One way to get businesses to comply is ordering them to take a state-approved food inspection course that also teaches about cleanliness and cross-contamination. "Immigrants coming from the Third World would not be schooled in the issues of cross contamination and would not intuitively know hygiene standards," said Dr. Pascal James Imperato, a former city health commissioner who spent six years in Africa with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "They don't know how simple contamination can result in a widespread epidemic." But if all else fails, Corby will get a court injunction and shutter stores, something the state did 66 times in 2005 and 72 times through September of this year. "We either clean them up or close them down," he said. "There is a high standard that is applied. We'd rather have it too high than too low." Ruiad Nasher, who immigrated from Bangladesh in 1995, manages the Master Mini Market in Brooklyn. The market has been in business about two years. State inspectors busted the market selling more than 50 pounds of chicken from an unapproved source this year. Nasher bought the chickens from a poultry market in Brooklyn, and said he didn't know he was violating state law. "In Bangladesh, you didn't have all these rules," he said. Nasher said he now only buys USDA-approved chicken, even shrugging off discounted offers from the Brooklyn chicken purveyor. "Just for chicken, I don't want to lose my business," he said.
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#1. To: mirage (#0)
Did you ping pureporkkeilbasa with this story?
the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal bread.
Err...no...but done now.
Press 1 to proceed in English. Press 2 for Deportation.
It's all hamburger when it comes out of the grinder. Don't ask questions.
"That's a no-no"? Who the hell does he think he's talking to? His three-year old? You can almost hear the nanny-statism just dripping from those words. Get the hell out my kitchen bootlicker.
What a waste - if people want to eat iguana tails, why should we care? Hail the all-knowing state
One way to get businesses to comply is ordering them to take a state-approved food inspection course that also teaches about cleanliness and cross- contamination. "Immigrants coming from the Third World would not be schooled in the issues of cross contamination and would not intuitively know hygiene standards," said Dr. Pascal James Imperato, a former city health commissioner who spent six years in Africa with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "They don't know how simple contamination can result in a widespread epidemic." Or make it easy and just send folks back home where they can eat their cats and rats without the agra-racism of Americans.
Or they could just leave them alone. And you could stop pretending you're part of a movement protecting the holy "American culture" (whatever the hell that is) from eeevil foreign influences.
So...you favor people bringing about epidemics?
Press 1 to proceed in English. Press 2 for Deportation.
Yes that's it. Why just the other day I was bursting with joy looking out my window watching lepers limping by on the sidewalk. And then it warmed my heart to flip on the news and hear that a third of Manhattan had been wiped out by pneumonic plague and half of Los Angeles by whooping cough. Give me a freaking break and go peddle the Michael Savage BS to someone else.
My, we're testy today. Did we get up on the right side of the bed instead of the left? My question was geared more toward - Do you favor people catching ill and simply dying off -or- how would you handle liability in such cases?
Press 1 to proceed in English. Press 2 for Deportation.
Sorry. I believe common law strict liabilty is sufficient. What would a reasonable person expect as safe buying frog guts from a street vendor.
So aid and abed big government and tell everyone how much you love liberty on the internet? Nah, that's for losers.
Then why do you do it?
Oooh, how 3rd grade of you. The end result of aiding and abetting the ruling elites attempt to destroy it's historic rival the Middle Class with, in the case, the importation of Third World peoples and cheapening citizenship, will be departments to educate, inspect, be bribed by etc these people who have no tradition of liberty. Yours is an apolitical philosophy and yet you come to a political board to do what? Clearly you have too much time your hands. Is this the only board you could find? I have a couple I frequent and everyone can recognize me as an ancap, but someone you didn't so you are note even particularly familiar with the politics of your philosophical position.
the screen name is Pure Pork Kielbasa. you might want to edit so that he/she gets the ping. ;)
Yes, we can't lose that liberty loving middle class. Right. The class that most openly begs to be ruled over in this country is the rival to the rulers. Uh-huh. Third World peoples and cheapening citizenship And how much should it cost to pledge allegiance to the State? I have a couple I frequent and everyone can recognize me as an ancap As long as you get to make your own definitions.
You call yourself an anarchist after you make this charge. Are you schizophrenic?
Any recipes?
"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer." Or they could just leave them alone. And you could stop pretending you're part of a movement protecting the holy "American culture" (whatever the hell that is) from eeevil foreign influences. I can clearlyt see both sides of this argument. Myself I am not in favor of eating ANY unclean meat. But the government is not the entity that defines "unclean" for me, the Bible does. Truely, I would not be interested in many of the foods listed in this article, but that does not mean that the powers that be have a right to tell us what to eat. I mean hell, the government approves USDA pork products, and I would not touch any of them, but they are "safe". On the other hand, it does get tiresome that people from all over the world come to our country, want to live off of our taxes, but want nothing to do with being "like" us Americans. If thier ways at home were so great, what are they doing here???
"Don't Steal, the government hates competition."
So therefore, one can file a case in court as a tort claiming damages. Thank you.
Press 1 to proceed in English. Press 2 for Deportation.
A reactionary anarchist. You are too much the charlatan to have any idea what I am talking about, your mind as closed as that of your supposed adversaries.
It's nearly impossible for one to maintain an open mind when having it squarely implanted between ones own ass cheeks.
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. When you give up that force, you are ruined." Patrick Henry
#2. To: bluedogtxn, pureporkkeilbasa (#1)
Did you ping pureporkkeilbasa with this story?
#3. To: mirage (#0)
Remember...G-d saved more animals than people on the ark. www.siameserescue.org
#4. To: mirage (#0)
(Edited)
"That's a no-no because there is absolutely no monitoring of the standards in these places," said Dr. Philip Tierno
#5. To: mirage (#0)
In the first nine months of the year, inspectors across the state seized 1.6 million pounds of food, destroying about 81 percent of it. Last year, the state seized only 976,076 pounds of food.
-Thomas Paine
#6. To: mirage (#0)
(Edited)
Corby said education is key -- along with fines -- in getting owners to pass inspections and stop buying and selling illegal food.
#7. To: JohnGalt (#6)
Or make it easy and just send folks back home where they can eat their cats and rats without the agra-racisom of Americans.
#8. To: SmokinOPs (#7)
#9. To: mirage (#8)
So...you favor people bringing about epidemics?
#10. To: SmokinOPs (#9)
#11. To: mirage (#10)
Do you favor people catching ill and simply dying off -or- how would you handle liability in such cases?
#12. To: SmokinOPs (#7)
#13. To: JohnGalt (#12)
So aid and abed big government and tell everyone how much you love liberty on the internet? Nah, that's for losers.
#14. To: SmokinOPs (#13)
#15. To: mirage, bluedogtxn (#2)
#16. To: JohnGalt (#14)
The end result of aiding and abetting the ruling elites attempt to destroy it's historic rival the Middle Class...
#17. To: JohnGalt (#14)
Yours is an apolitical philosophy and yet you come to a political board to do what? Clearly you have too much time your hands. Is this the only board you could find?
#18. To: Pure Pork Kielbasa, bluedogtxn, mirage (#2)
---Henry Kissinger, New York Times, October 28, 1973
#19. To: SmokinOPs, John Gault, Mirage (#7)
Or make it easy and just send folks back home where they can eat their cats and rats without the agra-racisom of Americans.
#20. To: SmokinOPs (#11)
I believe common law strict liabilty is sufficient.
#21. To: SmokinOPs (#17)
#22. To: JohnGalt, re OPs (#21)
(Edited)
your mind is as closed as that of your supposed adversaries.
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