Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Three Million Chickens & Pigs Enter Food Supply after Eating Contaminated Feed

Two of the nation's top food officials Tuesday reiterated their position that issuing a recall of products from the three million or so broiler chickens and 6,000 hogs processed and distributed after eating contaminated feed is not needed.

In a teleconference with reporters Tuesday, Dr. David Acheson, now the Assistant Commissioner for Food Protection with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Dr. Kenneth Petersen, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service's assistant administrator for field operations, continued to claim that risk to human health was "very, very low."

"We believe the likelihood of illness to humans, including infants, is extremely small, that there really is no likelihood of a problem," Acheson said. "It's not the same as feeding it to a cat or a dog. We know that's a problem."

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