Appearances can be deceiving

In the news today is a story about a bunch of Chinese meat producers who have found a way to cut costs by taking rat, mink, and fox meat, mixing it with gelatin and passing it off as lamb.  For the full story, check out the Yahoo.com article.

The immediate problem I see here is aren't there a number of religions that won't eat certain types of animals.  Being a card carrying member of P.E.T.A. (people eating tasty animals), I can see how this might be a problem since I've not yet heard that rat is all that tasty; in fact, it's pretty stringy.  Another problem is that too often we the people hear of questionable products leaking into the American food supply because someone took a bribe or kickback or whatever and then a bunch of people get sick and die.  Sad situation all around.

The good news is that for those who are concerned about the regulations governing their food supply here in the USA, your local county law library has a couple of excellent resources you can take a look at.  For instance, the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 9 is all about food safety and inspection and Title 21 of the United States Code Annotated (West) deals with food for human consumption.

So, whether you're sick and dying because of something you ate, or you're afraid to eat something because it might lead you to be sick and dying, know that your local county law library has what you need to help you sleep at night (or provide fodder for your nightmares, as the case may be).