But not with just food meant for non-human consumption.  As I’ve warned of and discussed on several occasions, the issue now has grown beyond pets.

Salvaged pet food contaminated with an industrial chemical was sent to hog farms in as many as six states, federal health officials said Tuesday. It was not immediately clear if any hogs that ate the tainted feed then entered the food supply for humans.

Hogs at a farm in California ate the contaminated products, according to the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Officials were trying to determine whether hogs in New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Ohio also may have eaten the tainted food, the FSIS said. Hogs at some of the farms — it wasn’t immediately clear which — have been quarantined.

The FSIS was trying to determine whether the hog farms in the states other than California actually fed the material to their animals, spokesman Steven Cohen said in a statement. Hogs that were confirmed to have eaten the tainted food were processed at a federally inspected facility in California, Cohen said.

But who cares about people.  Reports from several groups tracking the problem now indicate tens of thousands of dogs and cats may have died from the contamination.

It’s time for the FDA and the companies who used the poison to face the price of their complicity in not testing foods (the FDA admits it tests less than one percent of all imported foodstuffs regardless of intended use).  Those companies relying on suppliers to ensure the safety of their products are as responsible as anyone else should those products prove to be dangerous in any way whatsoever.

Now, with many companies facing recalls, I think they need similarly to face the lawsuits.  Let them burn for using products that aren’t safe while they themselves claim their resulting products are fit for consumption.  They’re liars, cheaters, and killers.  If you put your name on something and call it food, you’re responsible for it.

And I’m similarly in agreement with those now demanding the government require all food manufacturers to identify and label where their ingredients come from and what they are, not to mention guaranteeing on their own behalf that those ingredients and products are safe to eat.  Don’t sell it and advertise it if you can’t back it up, right?

How many products are in your refrigerator/freezer or pantry that contain entries like “spices,” “natural and/or artificial flavors,” and “natural and/or artificial colors”?  I bet they represent more than half of what you can put your hands on.

It’s time for this to stop.

Tell me what it is and where it came from.  Add to that a guarantee that, if you sell a product, you take responsibility for it no matter what.

I assure you that this problem has yet to reach its limits.  We are going to see a tremendous fallout from this, both in costs to lives and in impact to our current food practices.