The Trouble With Chicken Analysis
The Trouble with Chicken, is an hour special that aired on PBS’ Frontline. The special was produced by Rick Young & Anthony Szule, Young also wrote & directed this episode. The correspondent for this episode was David E. Hoffman. The focus of the episode is on poultry & Salmonella bacteria. This paper is my summery & reaction to the film.
Noah Craten, an 18 month old from Arizona got sick in October 2013. His mother, Amanda Craten, said her son had a temp of 103.5 that persisted for weeks. Doctors still had no idea what was wrong. When they did an MRI the doctor looked at the MRI and he said, “This is an abscess, and it’s growing. We will have to do a craniotomy.” In a 4 hour surgery they cut from 1 ear to the other & took a piece of …show more content…
During the meeting DeBess showed them proof that the chicken had come from their Kelso, Washington plant. Ultimately, they did not believe they were at fault, but the consumers who had undercooked the meat were at fault. Federal meat inspectors stepped in to get Foster Farms to claim responsibility for the outbreak that sickened 46 & killed 1, & to reduce the levels of salmonella at their plant. By the spring of 2005, DeBess & his team saw fewer illnesses from salmonella Heidelberg.
The Jack in the Box outbreak spurred the USDA to label E. coli 0157 as an “adulterant”, or something not allowed in the meat. The USDA never made this distinction for Salmonella. Bill Marler is a food safety attorney has represented a lot of families that have lost loved ones to Salmonella. There have been 278 Salmonella outbreaks in 41 states, in 1998-2012.
Another poultry supplier, Cargill executive Shane Acosta showed David around the Springdale plant. Cargill processes 48,000 turkeys a day. They had a foodborne outbreak in 2011 that killed 1 & sickened 77 others. The company recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey. Nothing forced them to do a recall, but Cargill’s vice president Mike Robach called for it. Robach admits that they knew of the increase in Salmonella levels, but failed to act
Noah Craten, an 18 month old from Arizona got sick in October 2013. His mother, Amanda Craten, said her son had a temp of 103.5 that persisted for weeks. Doctors still had no idea what was wrong. When they did an MRI the doctor looked at the MRI and he said, “This is an abscess, and it’s growing. We will have to do a craniotomy.” In a 4 hour surgery they cut from 1 ear to the other & took a piece of …show more content…
During the meeting DeBess showed them proof that the chicken had come from their Kelso, Washington plant. Ultimately, they did not believe they were at fault, but the consumers who had undercooked the meat were at fault. Federal meat inspectors stepped in to get Foster Farms to claim responsibility for the outbreak that sickened 46 & killed 1, & to reduce the levels of salmonella at their plant. By the spring of 2005, DeBess & his team saw fewer illnesses from salmonella Heidelberg.
The Jack in the Box outbreak spurred the USDA to label E. coli 0157 as an “adulterant”, or something not allowed in the meat. The USDA never made this distinction for Salmonella. Bill Marler is a food safety attorney has represented a lot of families that have lost loved ones to Salmonella. There have been 278 Salmonella outbreaks in 41 states, in 1998-2012.
Another poultry supplier, Cargill executive Shane Acosta showed David around the Springdale plant. Cargill processes 48,000 turkeys a day. They had a foodborne outbreak in 2011 that killed 1 & sickened 77 others. The company recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey. Nothing forced them to do a recall, but Cargill’s vice president Mike Robach called for it. Robach admits that they knew of the increase in Salmonella levels, but failed to act