Can I just point out the irony to those of you bleating about the horrors of US meat, that I have been banned in the US from donating blood since the 90’s because of my consumption of good ol’ British Beef?
"bleat" really? this is why there can be no good discussion of this. It is the same pretty much everywhere in the world, as reagards British Blood from people who were in the UK during the BSE crisis.
The point about that is that cattle were being fed the diseased remains of ground up sheep. Which in a country that thinks it loves animals sounds bloody revolting, tbh. The point though is that when it came to light, practices were changed, there was a ban on British beef in the EU for years and years (not sure if it's allowed now? i only buy local). Same goes for when horse meat turned up in frozen ready meals. Regulations were changed and testing was tightened up.
Both things, IIRC, were discovered because of testing anyway. Same for recent scandals in other EU countries regarding out of date frozen meat having dates shaved off, new dates stamped on the carcasses and resold as being ok. Testing because of past scandals gets tightened. Anyone remember the lethal cooking oil in Spain in the 1970s? Most likely, unless they were buying it from the back of a lorry, it wouldn't happen now.
So it is not beyond comprehension that the next food scandal is around the corner, but we'll pick it up because of rigorous testing.
Each country (or trading bloc, such as the EU or NAFTA or the African Union) can set their own standards and it is up to sellers into those markets to know of and keep to regulations.