Taco Hell
Here in the New York area, fast-food standby Taco Bell has been implicated in dozens of accidental E. Coli 0157:H7 poisonings in the past few weeks. The CDC is testing each of the individual ingredients (A lot of little things go into a taco!), and they first thought that it was the green onions, but now maybe it's the white onions, but who knows? This begs a few important questions.
- Why are people still eating there? If you need a $0.99 meal, you've got plenty of other fast food options that aren't potentially deadly.
- Why are they still even operating? Wouldn't it be better for the reputation of the brand to close the shops until this gets sorted out? I can't imagine that it'll be easy for their sales to recover, anyway. But, if the corporate office is perceived by the public as being "sensitive", it might help them recover in the future. Of course, maybe they feel that cheap chalupas and clever commercials are all they need.
- Why are the Taco Bell shops allowed to continue operation? Is there any entity capable of bringing the hammer down here? You'll be surprised to know that the US government does not have the legal power to stop food production. As author Eric Schlosser notes in his excellent op-ed in yesterday's New York Times (reg req'd), we've been letting food industry bigs lobby uncontested for over 20 years for "the right to sell us poisoned food". It's time to fight back, don't you think?