They've known since mid-July, but for some reason it's staying fairly quiet.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44019562/

"There was no waiting," said an agency spokesman who asked not to be named. He added that USDA must make sure allegations of contamination are "iron-clad" before approaching a large producer such as Cargill.

I think you may be on to something.

Some of these companies are repeat offenders and I wonder how often inspectors, company or government, turn the other way or trivialize the problems they find. As someone else mentioned, profit before all.

That's a little odd. The original article I read here on MSNBC.COM specifically pointed out it was a Cargill plant in Arkansas. So I don't know why the news authority you read left it out.

Nobody likes to see anybody get sick, and the voices that are advising this is happening due to overcrowding and under-caring about the flocks certainly have a point. But when I was a wee lad, my mommie told me that when I grew up, I should always cook everything the way it's supposed to be cooked in order to avoid getting sick. In those days we didn't get "Salmonella," or "E-Coli" or whatever, we got "Food Poisoning." Not at all fun, and no doubt on a rare occasion it could even kill someone. Just like measles did, or chicken pox, or peanut butter for that matter.

I remember being way awful sick. I don't remember anyone getting sued because of it. I do remember mommie telling me once "Well dummy, no wonder you're sick. We've always called that restaurant 'Ptomaine-Carry's.'..." "Serves you right for eating there." I guess that was in another time and place. One where we were responsible for our own actions, and paid our own consequences.

This summer we bought some strawberries from a roadside stand near us. Some heck, we bought lots. I ended up sick for a few days and my wife joined me a day later. A week or so ago they announced the strawberries had been recalled due to E-coli. I guess we didn't wash them very well. I suppose I could go out and find someone to sue. But what the heck, I'll just wash them better when they come around next time. If I'm really worried about it I could rinse them in a bowl of water with a few drops of chlorine added, then rinse them. Or I could not buy them............ Nah, that's not the answer.

Profit above people especially when you have lawyers to put a human face on a faceless corporation.

you all are idiots. this was a voluntary recall! never ordered by anyone! Cargill did the right thing and recalled this product to protect the public. NO ONE (government) said they had to recall they did it to protect the public and the company. Why do you think Cargill is the largest privately owned company. it has great morals and cares about its employees and the public that consumes its products.

How do you know that??

tunacan, "Why are you a tuna can?" I haven't heard yet of Cargill packing tuna in cans. [Are you an advocate for Cargill? Are you one of those annoying persons up there on the doorsteps of the state capitol at Topeka, every day?]

you all are idiots. this was a voluntary recall! never ordered by anyone! Cargill did the right thing and recalled this product to protect the public. NO ONE (government) said they had to recall they did it to protect the public and the company. Why do you think Cargill is the largest privately owned company. it has great morals and cares about its employees and the public that consumes its products.

Young and Naive, great combo.

Consuming undercooked meat is dangerous and can lead to serious illness. Just look at the asterisk at the bottom of every menu in every restaurant in the world. Poultry and pork probably the worst sources of E.coli and Salmonella in our food supply, regardless of the manufacturer. Come on, use common sense and not litigation.

All processed food (processed by man) is no longer real food (and is dangerous). Horrible obesity and heart disease of all kinds (all over the world and especially among the youngest generation) is the worst proof of this! But who will hear and who will learn? Not many.

However, don't only blame it on profiteering investors and industrialist's. They can only do this because so many allow them to do so. A dream of a life of ease and convenience turns lives into miserable traps and slowly kills most...! It also makes so many become unreasoning and stupid and blind.

a single chicken, a single cow, a single pig, a single turkey or duck or goose, carries E.coli and Salmonella, even if you raise it on your farm in a sterile environment. It doesn't take thousands packed into processing plants. Cook the meat to the appropriate temperature before you consume it. Lawyers made this country what it is today.

Stupid assumption, Bill. Since the child wasn't the only one who got sick, are we to assume that everybody else undercooked the turkey too?

Not to mention that it hasn't gone to court yet. Cargill will no doubt go to settlement.

In order to kill salmonella, food must be heated to 131 degrees F for one hour or 140 degrees F for 30 minutes or 167 degrees F for 10 minutes. The color of meat does not indicate(at least always accurately) how done it is. All meat, especially ground meat should be cooked and measured with a meat thermometer. If this was not done, then yes, it is likely that the turkey was not cooked long enough to kill all the salmonella.

At the core of this lawsuit is the fact that the father did not cook the turkey meatballs sufficiently to kill certain foodborne bacteria. It is natural for raw meat to contain some bacteria, but proper cooking and food handling can prevent illness. Most bacteria are found on the surface of whole cuts of meat. However, with ground meat, the bacteria are mixed throughout the product. That is why it's especially important to reach the proper internal temperature and make sure it is cooked all the way through.

The reason the 10-month old was the only family member to get sick was likely due to the fact that young children, in general, are more vulnerable to infection. They are also more vulnerable because it is easier for them to become dehydrated and experience complications of the illness.

We've got a few million illegal Mexicans we'd like to send you that are straining our food system up here. Your address please?

I feel sorry for those that have gotten sick from this salmonella outbreak. But I think that people should understand that there are many companies out there that make sure that our food supply is safe.

I work at a food processing plant. We are a small privately owned company that processes chickens. I can tell you that every single chicken is inspected by a USDA inspector. Along with the fact that we have USDA inspectors along with our own QA department that check our entire plant while we are processing our chicken. They look at everything, a short list of the things they check is: product temps, equipment, packing materials , making sure everything is cleaning properly (we are inspected by both our QA & USDA every day prior to starting), even the condition and temp of the trucks that transport our product.

We pride ourselves that our chicken is only veg feed, antibiotic free, and raised in small flock and able to roam within the chicken house in a stress-free environment.

Trying to make yourself look stupid there Horseperson? Or is this a normal behaviour of yours wanting others to get sick or die?

Hey, teabaggers don't like regulation, so why would they want to eat food that had been socialized by the FDA? Caveat emptor, right? The free hand of the market? Government never did any good for anybody (except for making sure that our food isn't contaminated), right?

I dont' know why teabaggers wouldn't want to eat Cargill's product. A toothless, impotent FDA is exactly what they are advocating for.

Or is this a normal behaviour of yours wanting others to get sick or die?

No, its a "put up or shut up'" time for the Tea Party who advocate that we don't have regulations.

Here's a repeat for another luddite:

What a hoot, you rocket scientists on here need to get a clue. 100 years ago food borne illnesses were the number 1 killer in the country but now they are a blip on our radar. The most recent bad outbreak in Europe was caused by organic produce. Most people sickened by food are sickened because of their own preparation rather than something from the producer. Yet, you luddites scream our food is killing us. Wow, your ignorance is amazing...

The deadliest food borne illnesses lately were caused by fruits and vegetables. Go ahead, make our day. Another clueless luddite...

I would agree with you on that one, which is why I wash my produce with soap, and keep my kitchen sanitized. I have never been healthier, and I have never gotten one incident of food poisoning from vegetables.

If you look at the numbers of people who have died from meat recalls vs. vegetable recalls, the meat recalls would outnumber the vegetable recalls.

Another point to remember--the German e-coli scare was off of the alfalfa (I think?) sprouts, the Chili's recall was due to the scallion garnish. Stick to the vegetables you can wash thoroughly and you will find a very low incidence of food poisoning due to vegetables.

If being a luddite means that I avoid causing animals suffering with my food consumption, and can have local means of eating when gas prices explode, so be it, but I am definitely not clueless.

FYI If you cook meat to the proper temp, you won't get a thing. Even if it is contaminated with something. Spend 10 bucks on a meat thermometer and stop your worrying.

Pork has cysts in it that will not die, no matter what temperature you cook the meat to.

If you can look at a cow too ill too walk to the slaughterhouse being tasered and lifted by a forklift and you still want to eat that, go right ahead. The negative karma alone will eventually kill you.

Christina, I'm assuming the cysts you speak of are Trichinella spiralis. This is a parasite that can affect swine, typically ones fed table scraps (like in decades past). The only way to be infected with Trichinella spiralis is to consume encysted muscle tissue. Modern pork production practices (grain diet) and use of parasiticides has resulted in Trichinosis being a non-issue as the last case from eating pork was in the 1970s.

And... even when a pig was infected and formed a cyst, cooking the meat to medium well kills the organism. That's why so many people grew up always cooking pork to well done. Today we don't have to worry about Trichinosis so cooking pork to medium rare is safe (and more tasty!)

Jeeeeeze Louise! Enough to put me off eating anything breathing! Cysts! Yak!

Grow your own food then. Most people are sickened by their own efforts anyway. Spare us your platitudes and just go it alone.

The out of season veggies is a big one. The grapes in the winter that are from Chile? I don't buy those. The fruit is picked early, ripened in the fridge cases, bathed in pesticides, may have been handled by unwashed hands, etc. Local produce is the best.

I'll be nice and just say their insurance will handle it. But you sound like my Grandmother who would blame the "Russians" everytime the weather was bad.

A 10-month-old has enough teeth to have cooked turkey introduced into his diet. One would not hand the child a drumstick, but cut up turkey, safely cooked one would hope, could easily be soft enough to chew.
Did daddy ding your plant, Mr. Cargill, Jr.? Geez.

I would be very surprised if the Cargill workers or executives actually ate what Cargill produces. Cargill workers see what goes on in the factory and won't eat it, like the worker wouldn't eat canned meat in The Jungle, and the executives are probably eating grass fed organic beef.

Just because a company has been around for a hundred years doesn't mean that it will continue to be around for a hundred years. To paraphrase a mutual fund caveat, past ethical behavior does not promise future ethical behavior.

Christina- my father-in-law works for Cargill and has done so for all of his adult life. He makes sure that he buys Cargill products (which isn't hard to do). Most of his co-workers do the same.

If any Cargill worker can eat meat from a factory-farmed animal, knowing the crappy feed, steroids, antibiotics, cruel conditions these animals endure, more power to them. I can't.

The Jungle, despite its socialist bent, was factually true. The reason The Jungle isn't as pertinent now is that we have enjoyed 100 years of food regulation due to the conditions mentioned in The Jungle. If we defund the FDA, etc., we will go right back to that kind of food. Watch some pictures and videos of chickens, cows, pigs in factory farms, male baby chicks being ground to death while still alive, cows lying in feces being tasered to get up to walk to the slaughterhouse door, and tell me any of that is humane or decent. Show people the irradiation of meat, the lack of food inspectors, etc., and then try to convince them that what they are eating is safe.

I would be very curious to see, if a camera crew raided a Cargilil exec's fridge, what would be in it. I can almost guarantee you that it won't be Cargill product. I don't think that the executives are evil per se; they are worried about hitting their stock earnings, etc., and so cut back on safety measures and spending, etc., all the while being assured by their managers that these cuts don't materially affect the end product. Until, of course, they cut enough safety features that it does and somebody dies. Then, they are sorry IF someone died from their tainted product. Just business as usual. Show me footage of the fridge with Cargill product in it.