Recently, federal authorities banned the sale of meat from hogs and then chickens fed melamine-contaminated gluten in food and feed. The contaminated gluten, shipped from China, is the suspected culprit in the deaths of thousands of cats and dog, but no one really is certain.
Chickens, as you may know, produce another popular food product: eggs. Studies have shown that many chemicals are passed from chicken to egg. Knowing this, officials from FSIS and FDA (which jointly regulate eggs) had a responsibility to tell the public something regarding the risk from eggs produced by contamiinated chickens. Here are the things they could have said.
1. "We've tested the eggs and have found contamination." No, didn't say that.
2. "We've tested the eggs and find no evidence of contamination." Didn't say that, either.
3. "We don't know yet if the eggs are contaminated, but we've begun implementing procedures to find out." Again, no.
4. "(silence)." Bingo.
The official response was to publicly ignore the issue. But, did US officials have a different story for EU officials?
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