E. coli Outbreak Tracing Problem Haunts Schools
A USDA public meeting today in Washington, D.C., will focus on how to quickly identify suppliers of source material in products testing positive for E. coli O157:H7.
Such tracing difficulties have created a huge gap in food safety and participants in today’s meeting have a very recent case in point: the Huntington Meat Packing Inc. recall of 5.8 million pounds of ground beef products made under questionable conditions and feared to be contaminated with E. coli
When the two Huntington recalls were announced in January and February by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the contaminated meat was said to have been distributed to restaurants, hotels and distributors in California.
But as Peter Eisler, Elizabeth Weise and Blake Morrison reported this morning in USA Today, more than 200 schools were initially overlooked as recipients. Some were not notified until mid-March and had been serving meat recalled in mid-February, if not January 18.
The tainted ground beef from Huntington had been used by a company to make tacos and burritos for school lunch and snacks. For instance, the public school district in Arlington, Texas, told USA Today that it received notification of the potential harm on February 17, five days after Huntington’s second recall. The first recall was January 18.
Food Director Jackie Anderson said she didn’t get the news through a phone call or e-mail. It came in a letter sent via regular mail from Fernando’s in Compton, California, makers of a taco snack. The district served 11,000 tacos in February that it learned later were made with recalled Huntington meat.
Even with media attention, USA Today said the number of schools affected by the breakdown in communication and tracing in the Huntington E. coli recall is still growing.
Said the food director in Arlington: “There needs to be a way to notify people earlier — obviously, if we’d known sooner, we would not have served those tacos.”
USDA E. coli Beef Recall at West Missouri Beef
The third beef E. coli recall of 2010 hails from West Missouri Beef of Rockville, Missouri.
The West Missouri beef recall applies to 14,000 pounds of fresh boneless beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced. It was distributed to Chicago area wholesalers in 2000-pound “combo bins”
The following products are subject to recall:
- One combo bin containing approximately 2,000 pounds of fresh boneless beef identified as “75 1-M,” produced on October 26, 2009.
- One combo bin containing approximately 2,000 pounds of fresh boneless beef identified as “90 3-D,” produced on November 25, 2009.
- One combo bin containing approximately 2,000 pounds of fresh boneless beef identified as “90 5-D,” produced on November 27, 2009.
- Combo bins containing approximately 2,000 pounds of fresh boneless beef identified as “90 2-P,” “90 2-R” or “90 2-V,” produced on December 8, 2009.
- One combo bin containing approximately 2,000 pounds of fresh boneless beef identified as “90 3-E,” produced on January 13, 2010.
The problem was discovered by FSIS during a verification review performed at the establishment. The product bears the USDA establishment number 5821. FSIS said it is not aware of illnesses associated with the recall.
In January, beef E. coli recalls were announced by Adams Farm Slaughterhouse of Massachusetts and Huntington Meat Packing Inc. of California. Total poundage for the year so far is 880,500 pounds.
864,000 Pounds of Ground Beef Recalled in California
A California meat processor with an E. coli O157:H7 problem has recalled 864,000 pounds of ground beef sold to restaurants, hotels and distributors in California between Feb. 19- May 15, 2008, and between Jan. 5-15.
The ground beef E. coli at Huntington Meat Packing Inc. was found by USDA inspectors in a Food Safety Assessment conducted by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. The Montebello, California,-based meatpacker sold the patties and bulk ground beef under the Huntington, Imperial Meat and El Rancho brands.
FSIS says it has yet to receive any illness reports in relation to the contaminated hamburger meat.
E. coli o157:H7 is a potential deadly human pathogen that emits a powerful toxin that causes extremely painful and often bloody diarrhea. In more than 5 percent of cases it develops into hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a disease that attacks a person’s red blood cells and causes severe illness including kidney failure, strokes, heart problems and other damage. HUS most often affecting young children, the elderly or others who have weakened immune systems.
Massachusetts Adams Farm Ground Beef E coli Recall
State and federal health officials are investigating the scope of E. coli O157:H7 contamination from ground beef products distributed by Adams Farm Slaughterhouse of Athol, Mass.
According to a recall announcement issued Monday night by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, 2,574 pounds of ground beef products that were was distributed to private owners on three Massachusetts farms is being recalled.
This is a Class I High Health Risk recall and the Massachusetts farms that received the product were identified as Mazzarese, Side Hill Farm and Sweet Water Farm. The suspected ground beef E. coli packages are marked with the packaging date of 11/11/2009 and bear the USDA establishment number EST 5497 on the USDA seal of inspection.
According to this recall, it was initiated after the Massachusetts Department of Public Health confirmed a positive ground beef sample for E. coli O157:H7, which it collected during an epidemiological investigation. Working in conjunction with Massachusetts E. coli experts, FSIS determined that there is an association between the ground beef products and an illness in the state of Massachusetts. The investigation is continuing and anyone with signs or symptoms of E. coli O157:H7 infection should consult a physician.
This organism causes extremely painful and often bloody diarrhea. In more than 5 percent of cases, patients develop life-threatening hemolytic remic syndrome (HUS) or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and can suffer kidney failure, stroke, damage to their kidneys, heart, brain and central nervous system. Some 60 people die each year from E. coli infections and many more are hospitalized and suffer life-long health conditions.
Steak Safety: The Straight Story
E. coli in steak: What you need to know
Is it always safe to eat a steak served rare? Seems like a simple question.
But a Dec. 24 National Steak and Poultry recall of almost 250,000 pounds of blade-tenderized beef forced consumers and health officials to reevaluate the question—especially after government agencies associated the recalled beef with 21 cases of E. coli in 16 states.
Typically, ground beef comes to mind when considering meat that could be tainted with E. coli. But this outbreak involved blade-tenderized, or what health officials call “non-intact” beef, which included steaks, beef medallions and sirloin tips. “Blade-tenderized” or “non-intact” refers to meat that has been punctured with needles or blades to break down the tissue and make a tougher cut of muscle more tender. Any pathogen (like E. coli) on the surface of the beef is normally killed in the cooking process if the beef is intact. But the mechanical tenderization process drives pathogens inside the beef. If it isn’t cooked until the internal temperature reaches at least 140 degrees, the beef could still contain the pathogen.
Government officials and industry groups offer mixed advice on what consumers should do. The National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods determined in 2002 that non-intact beef can indeed harbor infective amounts of E. coli, but that following the 140-degree rule will put you in the clear. A 2002 risk assessment by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) concluded there is almost no difference in risk of illness from intact versus non-intact steaks.
And yet there have been several E. coli outbreaks since then involving mechanically tenderized meat. This has put the spotlight on the issue of labeling. If non-intact steak must be cooked a certain way to guarantee its safety, then shouldn’t consumers have the right to know whether their steak is intact so they can cook it accordingly? That was the recommendation issued in a 2005 study by the Minnesota Department of Health following a 2003 outbreak of E. coli associated with blade-tenderized frozen steaks sold by door-to-door salesmen. In light of the National Steak and Poultry outbreak, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro called for labeling of non-intact steaks, stating “USDA has been aware of the E. coli risks associated with mechanically tenderized steaks as early as 1999, but has refused to act…consumers should be made fully aware of the products they are receiving so they can assure that they are cooked at the appropriate temperature.”
Furthermore, does this mean every time we eat at a restaurant, we should order our steak cooked to an internal temperature of 140 degrees? The National Restaurant Association in 2000 decided that restaurant patrons asking for rare- or medium-cooked steak should be informed that non-intact steaks should be cooked to at least 145 degrees to ensure safety. But when is the last time your server told you that?
2009 Ground Beef E. coli Recalls Exceed 1 Million Pounds
According to a year-end review of federal records by national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, more than 1 million pounds of ground beef and beef cuts intended for grinding were recalled from market this year due to evidence of E. coli O157:H7 contamination.
The largest of the 15 recalls from USDA-inspected slaughter and grinding plants covered 545,699 pounds of ground beef produced this fall by Fairbank Farms of Ashville, N.Y.
Multi-state E. coli outbreaks associated with these recalls killed at least three people and sickened at least 80, according to the records. The outbreaks resulted in at least 34 hospitalizations and eight confirmed cases of life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a disease especially dangerous to children that causes kidney failure and many other serious health conditions.
Since January 2007, the industry has initiated at least 52 recalls of beef tainted with E. coli O157:H7 compared with 20 in the three previous years, according to the New York Times.
“This data points to the need for sweeping change in the way food safety is regulated in this country,” Fred Pritzker, founder and president of Pritzker Olsen, said in a news release. ”While I agree we cannot ‘test’ our way out of this situation, the current regulatory schemes incentivize producers not to test their product. This is wrong and dangerous and needs to changed.”
At least 24 people from nine states were infected by the same strain of E. coli that Michigan public health investigators found in ground beef produced by JBS Swift Beef Co. There was an initial recall of 41,280 pounds, but it was soon widened to include 380,000 pounds of the product.
A smaller ground beef E. coli outbreak killed a 7-year-old Cleveland girl. Ohio health investigators associated her death with contaminated ground beef from Valley Meats LLC of Coal Valley, Ill., which recalled 95,898 pounds of potentially tainted hamburger meat in May that had been delivered to restaurants.
Another isolated but disturbing hamburger E. coli outbreak occurred in October at a nature camp in Plymouth, Mass. In that case, more than 20 children and chaperons from a middle school in Rhode Island were sickened by contaminated ground beef traced to a meat packer in Brockton, Mass.
The Fairbank Farms recall was associated with an outbreak that killed two people and sickened 26. Records show 19 people were hospitalized and five developed HUS.
