Valley Meat E. coli Recall Amended
USDA has ammended its recall announcement regarding Valley Meat Company, Modesto, California, a meatpacker that recalled about 1 million pounds of frozen hamburger patties and other ground beef due to possible E. coli 0157:H7 contamination. 
The meat has been associated with a cluster of 7 E. coli infections in people who live in California.
The recall announcement is being amended to revise the geographic distribution and to note that some of the recalled products were distributed to a firm in California for further processing. The further-processing facility is not named. The products subject to recall bear the establishment number “EST. 8268″ inside the USDA mark of inspection as well as a production code of 27509 through 01210. These products were produced on various dates between Oct. 2, 2009 and Jan. 12, 2010. They were distributed to retail outlets and institutional foodservice providers in California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and internationally, and to a firm in California for further processing, the amended recall said.
USDA became aware of the problem on July 15 when the agency was notified by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) of a small E. coli O157:H7 cluster of illnesses with a rare strain as determined by DNA fingerprinting. A total of six patients with illness onset dates between April 8 and June 18, 2010 were reported at that time. After further review, CDPH added another patient from February to the case count, bringing the count to seven.
FSIS is continuing to work with the CDPH and the company on the investigation. Anyone with signs or symptoms of foodborne illness should contact a health care provider.
Fecal Shedding Underestimates E. coli 0157:H7 Volume in Cattle
New research published this week shows that testing for E. coli O157:H7 in cow feces underestimates the prevalance of the pathogen in the animals’ gastrointestinal tract.
The research, published August 1 by the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, was conducted by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.
E. coli 0157:H7 is a dangerous foodborne pathogen in humans that grows benignly in cattle.
It is common to test cattle feces to determine if any individual animal is shedding the bacteria, but scientists are seeking more information about where in the cattle gastrintestinal tract the E. coli can be found. The information is needed for the purpose of fighting the bug.
The research team found E. coli O157:H7 in samples from the mouth, pharynx, tonsils, lymph nodes, esophagus, all four sections of the stomach, and the small and large intestines, though the specific locations of positive cultures varied between animals.
“Although 31 percent of the animals were culture positive for E. coli O157:H7 somewhere along the intestinal tract, only 26 percent of those were fecal-culture positive. These data suggest that fecal shedding underestimated E. coli O157:H7 prevalence in the beef cattle gut and identified potential intervention sites,” the researchers concluded.
In short, fecal shedding underestimated E. coli O157:H7.
USDA-FSIS Guidance for Reducing Escherichia coli O157:H7 Shedding in Cattle
USDA-FSIS has issued a guidance for reducing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7). According to the guidance, pre-harvest cattle management controls and interventions are emerging as an option that offers great opportunity to improve food safety.
Consensus within the beef industry is that beef producers should follow basic recommended principles of cattle management. The following are the basic recommended principles of cattle management.
- Clean water;
- Clean feed;
- Clean environment that is appropriately drained;
- Separate housing of calves and heifer or reduced animal density; and
- Biosecurity—wildlife exclusion to the extent possible.
According to the FSIS, current research has not shown a reduction E. coli O157:H7 shedding in cattle when these basic principles are used. Nevertheless, FSIS supports the principles because of their foundation in animal health and welfare. They provide a foundation for the processing interventions and sanitary dressing procedures used to control E. coli O157:H7 contamination in raw beef.
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.”
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.
