The headlines — “Horse Meat Scandal Rocks the EU” or “Feds Indict Four in Salmonella Outbreak” — demonstrate it clearly: Food safety and quality issues and the responses to them are at an all-time high.
An examination of a Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak linked to ground turkey illustrates that health authorities must be more aggressive in their efforts to detect and respond to foodborne illnesses.
Apparently, the cure for nasty foodborne pathogens has been hiding in our yogurt all along. Lactic acid, which is a product of nature and dissolves without any chemical residue, is one of many natural acids fighting the good fight against pathogens on carcasses today.
A somewhat unusual aspect to "cured" natural and organic processed meats is that nitrate and nitrite cannot be added as ingredients, because "preservatives" are not permitted in natural and organic foods. This has resulted in alternative meat-curing processes that utilize natural sources of nitrate, typically celery juice concentrate or powder.
Cardinal Meats experienced its first recall in 2007. The details surrounding the recall were typical for a burger processor: We unknowingly purchased boneless beef from a CFIA approved supplier – this meat was contaminated with E.coli O157:H7.