Final Project

For my final project I analyzed the amount of meat recalled in 2014 (2015 is still not over, so the data may not be fully accurate as of yet). The type of meat most recalled was beef, with over 13 million pounds called into question for potential health hazards. The least recalled was ovine (sheep), barely cracking 27,000 lbs. I chose to display the data in this way so it would be easy to read and pack a lot of data into it.

The data set comes from the United States Department of Agriculture that lists everything from the species, type of contamination, and occasionally specific product that was recalled (ex chicken noodle soup, beef jerky, etc) (fsis.usda.gov). I didn't know much about meat recalls at first but after some researching, some of the information blew my mind. Recalling meat is at a food companies' discretion, even if it's government mandated-meaning even if they knew the product was tainted they could simply sell it anyway. Most of the contaminated meat is also never recovered (USA Today). Customers are buying and consuming it without knowing the meat can get them sick. Interestingly enough, poultry and pork had more recalls overall than beef, but the number of pounds of beef recalled comparatively speaking were much more. This research lead me to rediscovering a major beef recall last year that I had totally forgotten about (Food Safety News). Beef all over the country had been infected with e.coli, which the USDA classifies as a "Class I" recall (the strongest of the classes, meaning there is a reasonable chance the meat will cause health problems or even death). I eat meat fairly regularly, so this information was fascinating to me and has me intrigued to learn more about meat industry practices.


References

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-summaries

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2007-12-02-meat-recalls_N.htm

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2014/02/whats-going-on-with-the-massive-rancho-beef-recall/#.VmYfg_krKUk