More about the dangers of ground beef

Eight years ago, the Bush Administration allowed the beef products produced by Beef Products, Inc., to be exempted from routine testing, after the company claimed that it was eliminating microbes and bacteria by injecting beef products with ammonia.  Apparently the company oversold the benefits of ammonia injection, because its slaughterhouse now experiences a "much higher microbial presence" than other companies' cuts, according to the New York Times on January 10. 

Apparently the Agricultural Department's inspectors found much higher rates of Salmonella in this company's product than it found in competitors' product, and has belatedly rescinded the company's special exemption from testing.  Department inspectors were apparently unaware of the problems with Beef Products' cleansing and testing, until alerted to testing results from the School lunch program by authors of the New York Times' investigation.