USDA Issues An Urgent Meat Recall Due To Inspection Incident

Meat recall. It's a phrase that nobody likes to hear or read because, well, I think most people automatically assume the worst. Especially when the meat being recalled is pork. Like many, I remember the tales of the federal government coming into Southwest Oklahoma and killing off hundreds of thousands of family farm pigs due to a ripping and rampant disease back in the 1970s. I can't remember what the disease was, cholera maybe due to the sulking pits of pig waste or another swine disease that somehow spread like crazy.

Luckily, this pork recall isn't being issued in response to disease or transmission of any yet recorded cases of sickness, it's all because someone forgot to cross their T's and dot their I's somewhere down the long list of government beaurocracy.

That's not a bad thing, I'm not complaining. That ridiculous amount of red tape keeps the majority of us safe, at least where food is concerned. Without the USDA, we might still be eating black-tail prairie dogs, confirmed carriers of the old middle-ages black plague.

This recall is for a series of pork products produced by the Evans Food Group. They make a whole host of snacks processed into pork rinds and chicharrones. These can be found on the store shelves at Walmart, Target, Homeland/Country Mart, and most convenience stores throughout Lawton and the entire region.

Brands included are those pork snacks labeled as Mac's, Cazo de Oro, Turkey Creek, and 7-11 branded products.

The problem isn't that they weren't cooked enough or they're carrying some food-borne disease, the problem is there was an entire shipment of raw meat to the processing house that somehow missed the USDA inspections. All of the inspections.

Again, it's important to note that there have been zero cases of sickness attributed to these snacks as of me writing this, but an abundance of caution is always best practice.

My father and I both eat pork rinds and cracklin's, so the first person I told this morning was him... but he's one of those stubborn old Boomer's that says "Welp, they taste fine to me." He also continued eating his beloved Blue Bell ice cream throughout the three or four listeria outbreaks the Texas creamery had in the last few years. He worked his entire career in oil refineries, odds are whatever chemicals weaseled their way into his blood probably still kills off just about everything the natural world throws at him.

If you're the type of person that thinks pork rinds are nasty, I'd care to wager you think ketchup goes good with steak, but also that tang mayonnaise has is too spicy.