The USDA recorded 69 violations in a year. So far, 9 people have died in the outbreak.

On July 17, the inspector found “green algal growth” in a puddle of standing water in a raw holding cooler. And on July 27, an inspector noted clear liquid leaking out from a square patch on the ceiling. Behind the patch, there were two other patches that were also leaking. An employee came and wiped the liquid away with a sponge, but it returned within 10 seconds. The employee wiped it again, and the liquid again returned within 10 seconds. Meanwhile, a ceiling fan mounted close by was blowing the leaking liquid onto uncovered hams in a hallway outside the room.

A picture of hell.

  • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.netEnglish
    961·
    2 months ago

    Y’all would be fucking horrified by the state of food manufacturing if you knew.

    I used to work at a food processing and distribution company, in the document processing department… we weren’t strictly supposed to read the audits, especially the internal ones, but we did, to make sure they were complete and compliant, which was our job. Also our job was intensely boring and we needed something to gossip about.

    The number of our distributors (first level manufacturing) who got C or D grades on their inspections… fucking gross. I reported a few of them, but the company did not care.

    Before that I worked at a chicken hatchery. The cultures I cultured -doing an audit just like those I read later in life- were sooooo gross and problematic. But I was instructed to cover it up because, and this is important context, it was all self report after the initial inspection. I was doing this at 16, and was likely significantly more thorough than any veteran employee would have been. (Absolutely not why I was chosen; they chose me due to incredibly mild nepotism, as my manager was my step-dad, and he knew science stuff was up my alley… plus I was a filler worker, being under 18.)

    I really hope things have improved, but somehow I doubt that the past 20 years has made a positive impact from my audit experience. (The document processing was less than 10 years ago, supporting my belief nothing has changed for the better.)

      • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.netEnglish
        18·
        2 months ago

        Not where I expected that to go, but then… I never know where to expect comedians to go… I think that’s the point.

        Anyway, keeping to the subject, when I worked at the hatchery there was this guy… he was the guy who killed all the male babies, and that was his whole job… he was fucking weird, in a bad way, and we all gave him tons of space. It didn’t bother him at all to kill thousands of birds in a single day as just his normal job. That’s all.

          • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.netEnglish
            7·
            2 months ago

            He honestly isn’t really my cup of tea… I love stand-up, but his stuff always just felt wrong to me, and not like politically wrong but…

            Norm-violating wrong.

            (Hehehehehehehe)

          • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.netEnglish
            5·
            2 months ago

            My bad. I’m not a comedian. Idk where the line is between “so real it’s funny” and “so real it’s not funny”… it’s just a thing I experienced.

            So here we are.

            Sorry.

        • cows_are_underrated@feddit.org
          62·
          2 months ago

          You get used to the cruelty. It may feel wrong for a short period of time, but you get used to and at some point don’t care. I currently work at a small(about 200 pigs) “piglet farm”, where they raise pigs and sell them to other farmers. Part of the morning routine involves cutting the tails and teeth’s of all new born piglets. It was quite of a shock at the beginning, but even after 1 week I realise it being jot as shocking ad in the beginning, even though I still absolutely hat it for having to do this. Luckyly I only have to work there for 3 more weeks.