# Beware of the tuna!



## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

http://lotsofhealthy.com/massive-bumble-bee-recall-2-employees-admit-cooking-man-mixing-batch-tuna/



> Massive Bumble Bee Recall After 2 Employees Admit Cooking A Man And Mixing Him With A Batch Of Tuna
> 
> On Monday, Bumble Bee Foods and 2 employees were charged by Los Angeles prosecutors with violating safety regulations in the death of a worker who was cooked in an industrial oven with tons of tuna. José Melena was performing maintenance in a 35 foot long oven at the company's Santa Fe Springs plant when coworkers loaded it with 12,000 pounds of canned tuna and turned it on. Temperatures reached 270° during a two-hour process to cook and sterilize the tuna. The body of Melena,62, was found when the oven was opened.
> 
> ...


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## AmishHeart (Jun 10, 2016)

Why weren't they charged with killing the man?
Why was the tuna canned after a cooked man was cooked with it?
This story sounds kinda fishy.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

The tuna is already in a sealed can when it is cooked. It would be like dropping a chunk of beef in the cooker before you sealed it. It would not affect the contents inside the jars. I still wouldn't want to eat any of that batch but that is an emotional response and has no bearing on whether or not I think the tuna is tainted.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

There is the possibility that this employee was locked in this furnace on purpose. If this is true then murder charges should be charged against the employees that locked him in there.

If you think about it, this would be almost a perfect murder because 90% of the time no one will attribute all the blame on the employees and they probably would not get any jail time. They can always claim that it was an accident.


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## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

What a gruesome way to go!

Rest in Peace Sir!


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

What they called an oven is actually called a retort. It is a huge pressure cooker about four feet tall and in this case thirty-five feet long. Big steel trays are loaded with canned raw fish, in this case, stacked as high as possible and still fit the retort, put on a cart and a string of carts are pushed into the retort. A large heavy door is swung closed and sealed much like you do with your pressure cooker. A steam plant sends steam into the cooker and pressure is maintained for the required amount of time.

I've never been around a tuna cannery but it can't be much different than a salmon cannery and I've spent plenty of time in one of those.


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## tmttactical (Nov 23, 2015)

Tweto said:


> There is the possibility that this employee was locked in this furnace on purpose. If this is true then murder charges should be charged against the employees that locked him in there.
> 
> If you think about it, this would be almost a perfect murder because 90% of the time no one will attribute all the blame on the employees and they probably would not get any jail time. They can always claim that it was an accident.


This is either a "Planned Accident" or a very careless and ignorant maintenance person. Any reasonably intelligent maintenance person would know to "TAG & LOCKOUT" any equipment they are going to be working on or in. I am a retired Facility Maintenance Director and this has been common practice for at least 50 years.


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

True story, but 4 1/2 years old:

Jose Melena, 62, was loading a 35-foot-long oven at the company's Santa Fe Springs plant before dawn Oct. 11, 2012...

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bumble-bee-pay-6-million-over-employee-cooked-tuna-oven-n408721


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## bbqjoe (Feb 10, 2017)

Where's the part where they say they mixed him in with the batch?


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

tmttactical said:


> This is either a "Planned Accident" or a very careless and ignorant maintenance person. Any reasonably intelligent maintenance person would know to "TAG & LOCKOUT" any equipment they are going to be working on or in. I am a retired Facility Maintenance Director and this has been common practice for at least 50 years.


You'd think if the guy was conscious he'd notice the "oven" being loaded around him. If he wasn't conscious you'd think the "loaders" would notice a body when they were placing the carts in the "oven".


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Starcreek said:


> True story, but 4 1/2 years old:
> 
> Jose Melena, 62, was loading a 35-foot-long oven at the company's Santa Fe Springs plant before dawn Oct. 11, 2012...
> 
> http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bumble-bee-pay-6-million-over-employee-cooked-tuna-oven-n408721


It is interesting that the story I posted did not have a date on it, that I could find. It is old news. And the tuna did not contain a human body.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Not even a finger in a can? What a gyp.


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## bbqjoe (Feb 10, 2017)

Woody said:


> Not even a finger in a can? What a gyp.


Really.

At least tell me the guy's name was Charlie.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Woody said:


> Not even a finger in a can? What a gyp.


Woody, when you work in schools, like I did for decades, you have to reign in terminology, or get in trouble with administration, and potentially lose your job if you are really insensitive. I once used the word "gyp" and was called on the carpet about it. Before that, I had no idea of the origin of that word, let alone how to spell it. I would have spelled it jip, but I do know that it has a different origin.

Then, after being told it was inappropriate to use that term, I tried to figure out how to say what I said, with a different term. I am curious if you or anyone else can? I can't. It is a term I grew up with and it is so ingrained in my speech patterns.

I am not trying to call you out, just that this brought back the trouble that word created for me.


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

weedygarden said:


> Woody, when you work in schools, like I did for decades, you have to reign in terminology, or get in trouble with administration, and potentially lose your job if you are really insensitive. I once used the word "gyp" and was called on the carpet about it. Before that, I had no idea of the origin of that word, let alone how to spell it. I would have spelled it jip, but I do know that it has a different origin.
> 
> Then, after being told it was inappropriate to use that term, I tried to figure out how to say what I said, with a different term. I am curious if you or anyone else can? I can't. It is a term I grew up with and it is so ingrained in my speech patterns.
> 
> I am not trying to call you out, just that this brought back the trouble that word created for me.


Okay, without googling it (or "wiki"ing it), I'm guessing it's short for "gypsy," which would make it an ethnic slur. (Am I right?)


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Starcreek said:


> Okay, without googling it (or "wiki"ing it), I'm guessing it's short for "gypsy," which would make it an ethnic slur. (Am I right?)


You are so correct about that. I had never had it put together for me that the word gyp was a slam to an ethnic group before that, but evidently some people have.

I do not know that I have ever come in contact with anyone who was a gypsy, as their ethnic background. I heard about gypsy's growing up. There were a few stories when I was growing up that a caravan of gypsy's came through town, and would go into stores as a large group and when they left, they had taken many unpaid items with them. The hardware store was always hit.

When you work in inner city schools with many people of color, as I did for decades, you really have to learn how to figure out any prejudices you might have and how you might treat or mistreat children of those groups. I thought I was aware of the issues, and more than once had it pointed out to me that something I said was offensive. I don't think I ever tried to be offensive to my students or their parents and families, because, if you are, you get much less cooperation from all of them and then administration wants to document your mistakes.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

Some people are looking for things to be offended by. 

Something tells me that a gypsy would look at the word gyp with pride. An old neighbor of mine used to send his kids to the store with a shopping list. He never sent them with any money. That was part of their training and the life skills that they were expected to master. I'm quite sure they took pride in a job well done.


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

Wow I guess my cats just eta a Mexican, I'm sorry folks could help it but Starcreek is right ,this happen sometime in 2012.They pay big for that.
Recalls of Foods & Dietary Supplements
https://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Recalls/default.htm


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

I can't imagine that there was a recall. There is no way they would put that out on the market for human consumption. Even selling it for pet food would create such bad press I can't imagine that they would take the risk for the price of one cooker of fish that the insurance company probably paid for anyway. 

I feel confident that that headline was a lie created to get us to read the article. The press took a tragedy and made it sound worse. The press exists for two reasons, to control our thought and to sell advertising.


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