We could spend all our time concentrating on news that’s hard to lose: The kind of news that fills the plate but sickens the diner. If you guess food recalls, you’ve got the Ace of Spades. It’s been a tough year as recalls have mounted on top of recalls. Staying on the safe side of food safety has been an ongoing challenge. We’ve had the peanut butter debacle, various fruits and vegetable recalls including cantaloupes, and the big cookie dough scare. As for meats, there have been ongoing chicken concerns, hot dog issues, and numerous ground beef problems.

Is it time to breathe a sigh of relief? Are these recalls a thing of the past? No, not so fast. Once again the ground beef news has been troubling. Another ground beef recall; this one possibly more worrisome as it involved repackaging goods that were known to be on the recall list.

Where is the FDA, the CDC, the Ag Department on all of this? Who’s watching the store? Wasn’t the Administration touting its commitment to overall issues of food safety? What happened?

Not much actually. OK, make that nothing. We are still straddling the line between increased inspections and limited corrections. Food Safety is still a top burner issue that cannot seem to get the attention necessary to move it to the forefront of regulation. This is one time the cry of too much government will not work. We need the inspections to avoid the recalls.

Getting a recall notice is not the right direction. We need to stop the problem at the source; not after the fact.

I’m thinking macaroni is looking pretty good right now.