ABSTRACT
Consumer products, including food and pharmaceuticals, were one of the early areas of domestic federal regulation. The reason for this is easy to appreciate as these products touch everyone and can have severe implications. Yet presently there are seemingly more and more news reports of salmonella and other bacterial contamination of feed products causing widespread illness and occasionally even death. For example during the 2011 summer, Cargill recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey products which had been contaminated with salmonella. At least seventy-six people had become ill and one man died.1 That case, though, was a result of accidental contamination. In 2008 a Chinese company recalled 700 tons of infant formula after determining it contained melamine, an industrial chemical. The contaminated product was linked to the death
of one baby and kidney problems in at least fifty more. And this followed a similar deliberate contamination case which caused the deaths of thirteen infants. None of these products were believed to have been imported into the United States, but in 2007 melamine-contaminated pet food imported from China sickened thousands of U.S. pets and killed an unknown number.
