Red Tape to burn British food aid for hurricane

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Hundreds of tons of badly needed NATO ration packs, the same rations eaten by British troops in Iraq are slated to be incinerated because of US red tape!

The food, which costs the british taxpayers millions of pounds, is sitting in wharehouses, after the FDA recalled it as it was set to be distributed.

Dozens of trucks carrying more than 400,000 NATO operational ration packs were ordered back to the warehouse in Littlerock, Arkansas to dump it at an FDA incineration plant. It appears the Department of Agriculture impounded the shipment citing regulations of the import and export of meat.

One aid worker who wishes not to be named said, "This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve.

"The FDA has recalled aid from Britain because it has been condemned as unfit for human consumption, despite the fact that these are Nato approved rations of exactly the same type fed to British soldiers in Iraq."

Food aid from Spain and Italy is also reportedly being held, because it fails to meet FDA standards and has been deemed unfit for human consumption.

Meenwhile an FDA spokesperson said: "We did inspect some MREs (meals ready to eat) on September 13. They are the only MREs we looked at. There were 70 huge pallets of vegetarian MREs. They were from a foreign nation. We inspected them and then released them for distribution."

The US has come under very heavy criticism from Americans and foreign nations alike for the shambles and blunders that is being made of the rescue efforts.