Should the FDA have the right to inspect food?

NoAbuse

I say it tramples on the free market! If a person gets botulism, e.coli or trichonosis, they'll just stop buying that brand! Let the market decide I say.

What do you think?

Finkelstein

Yeah let the unfortunate die off who bought these products and have no criminal retribution in place against the marketing producers.

Sounds like sound wisdom .

You should move to China NoAbuse there is little enforced health regulation laws in that country.

You could sell wild infected animals like bats for public consumption.

RubaDub

For what it's worth, I want my food inspected by someone. The FDA, USDA, CIA, NAACP or whomever.

I have no problem with it.

Rub a Dub

JeffT

Read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. It's a good look at the meat industry prior to inspection laws.

LongHairGal

NO ABUSE:

You’d be eating pure garbage and poison if it weren’t for the USDA, etc.

JEFF T:

I remember that book “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair as being required reading back when I was in school..Maybe it should be required reading now.

The Chicago Tylenol Murders were a series of poisoning deaths -- 7 of them -- resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. The victims had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide.

Before those horrific and senseless crimes, one couldn't verify that you were first to open an OTC medicine, a jar of peanut butter, jelly, milk carton, etc. The tamper-evident safety-seals to bottles and other packaging we have today is a result thanks to FDA and other agencies. Prompt and honest action by Tylenol contributed to it's becoming number 1 in sales of analgesics in the U.S.

The Tylenol murders have never been solved.

I, for one, am thankful for our watchdogs.

Simon

You're confusing lack of standards and accreditation with a free market. Protecting people from bad businesses doesn't go against the idea of a free market at all, just imagine that the administrative body maintaining the standard is the ultimate publisher of bad-reviews that shuts a business down.

I'd rather have a free market with occasional bad-actors than a completely controlled and fixed market where the only actor was the government, because that always degrades to them being the ultimate bad actor with no recompense for what they do.

WTWizard

And what would stop someone from tainting the food after the inspection? I prefer inspection to be used to enforce the laws, and that starts with the farms. Animals raised in grossly inhumane conditions need to be stopped, and those responsible need to be punished to the fullest extent of the law (and perhaps forced, as part of their sentence, to have totally vegan diets). That is where most of these problems start. Eliminate the animal cruelty instead of criminalizing those who document it and blab it across the Internet or taking down the whole Internet/censoring everything. That would solve half the problem of food poisoning, if not more.

The other half is usually a result of something that happens after the inspection. How often do I find cans with bulges or big dents in them, because some idiot insists on stocking them anyways (and yes, I pull such product, shortage or none). I have also seen bags of dry goods with holes in them, through which anything (from dirt to food poisoning or cyanide) could get into the food. Again, if I see it, I pull it shortage or none. These idiots that continually stock such items need to get fired. The rule is, if I wouldn't buy it, I don't stock it either. (Obviously, with shortages, I am a bit more liberal in stocking boxes that are a bit beat up or cans with little dents, so long as the integrity of the package is still intact.)

Then, what happens once the customer buys a product and carelessly handles it. And no, I do not mean for coronavirus. How many times someone will improperly clean items after using them for raw meat and before using them for prepared food. No inspector is going to prevent food poisoning that results from this--a bit of soap and water might, though.

minimus

The FDA is more positive than negative