Are huge food recalls (like 1/2 billion eggs and a million pounds of ground beef) avoidable?

Because the people that run American companies are short-term profit -oriented.

Because their profit motive conflicts with a health motive.

Because there are not enough inspectors to make them.

Plus, shit happens and people make mistakes. The best laid schemes o’ mice and men and all that…

It’s avoidable if the food processing system is decentralized. Currently, a handful of major players dominate each processing and distribution chain (and also help write legislation in the name of food safety to create administrative burdens on smaller processors). Read Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal by farmer Joel Salatin.

they don’t do that because it costs MONEY! these are factory farms. A tip: pay a bit more for non factory food, and don’t eat as much. You’ll be better off in the long run.

Corporate greed outweighs concern for human disease, misery and death.

It is cheaper to delay settling claims for years and eventually pay on them than it is to follow the best practices that result in high food safety.