Monday, September 01, 2008

Yeech!

The machines at the Maple Leaf plant were filthy:
While the machines were cleaned daily at the plant prior to the outbreak, the whistleblower suggested daily cleaning procedures were not consistently followed or thorough enough.
The Maple Leaf worker also claimed a shoestring night staff only manages to clean "what they see" and the production line where the recalled corned and roast beef were handled was not always cleaned thoroughly.
"They clean the surface, but not underneath. You can see the dust and meat sitting on it," he said.
For thorough sanitization, the slicing machines should have been occasionally disassembled and deep cleaned, the worker insisted.
"They should get a flashlight and look inside. It was terrible -- leftover meat -- the smell," he said, recalling what happened when workers did completely disassemble the machines this week.
What they found inside were the gritty, pasty remains of leftover meat.
"We used so much chlorine to kill the bacteria, my eyes were burning," he said.
Not an appetizing image, is it? But already, the cover-your-ass spin is starting -- the news story continues:
It is not clear whether the federal government requires meat processing equipment to be regularly disassembled and thoroughly cleaned as part of normal procedures.
I don't care whether there are federal regulations requiring this or not, Canadian meat processors should be doing it anyway.
I absolutely hate this kind of corporate excuse -- that something is OK because the government hasn't passed a law against it. Because out of the other side of their mouth, they're complaining about how too much government regulation is hampering profitability and industry should be allowed to police itself and blah blah blah.
And then we get a Conservative government which actually listens to that corporate tripe.
And then we get eleven deaths and counting.

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