Don’t read this if you have a weak stomach and are capable of visualizing a picture of what you are about to read.

            I hope we have all heard or read about the Listeria outbreak from the food processed at the Boar’s Head plant. For over two years people have been reporting to authorities about (Here it comes!) mold, insects, dripping water, as well as meat and fat residue on walls, floors, and equipment. Over ten people have died and dozens more put in a Hospital.

            I have never been in a meat packing plant – outside yes – but I have been in the kitchen of some restaurants I never ate in again. One I had listed for sale had all the above plus a smell from the sinks and a bad septic field. Water from a ceiling leak was dripping into the shrimp bowl on the buffet table. I quietly mentioned it to the owner who merely moved the bowl a few inches. Another kitchen had lettuce and other vegetables stuck to the walls in an otherwise fairly clean kitchen before lunchtime.

            The old saying really applies in that you don’t want to know what is in the sausage or how it is made. My first realtor’s office was next to a hog slaughtering plant. By next I mean less than a hundred feet from their waste bins. It was built decades before the town grew around it.

            With the pressure on the governments to reduce funding, one cut was been to reduce spending on safety by allowing the companies to inspect their own products and processes. If a company inspector wants to keep their job, they become a blind mouse. When a government inspector is going to make their inspection, the company is advised well in advance. One proper day a year isn’t enough!