The historic 1906 Meat Inspection Act, for example, required food inspectors to "
poke and sniff" animals and carcasses to make sure they weren't infected--not a very good way to detect invisible pathogens.
During the past year, the National Academy of Sciences and the General Accounting Office have separately recommended that FSIS redeploy some of its inspectors away from the usual
poke and sniff system at slaughter plants to monitor food safety as better ways to protect consumers.
If
poke and sniff doesn't cut it, how do we prevent potentially deadly bugs from creeping into our hamburgers and chicken breasts?