Ok, moving on past the egg recall

[josie1918]

Beef Recall Heats Up Fight to Tighten Rules
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
Published: September 2, 2010
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CloseLinkedinDiggMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink For the first time in this country, public health officials have linked ground beef to illnesses from a rare strain of E. coli, adding fuel to an already fierce debate over expanding federal rules meant to keep the toxic bacteria out of the meat supply.

Cargill Meat Solutions recalled 8,500 pounds of hamburger on Saturday after investigators determined that it was the likely source of a bacterial strain known as E. coli O26, which had sickened three people in Maine and New York.

Under federal rules, it is illegal to sell ground beef containing a more common strain of the bacteria, E. coli O157:H7, which has been responsible for thousands of illnesses, many deaths and the recall of millions of pounds of beef over the years. But federal regulators are now considering whether to give the same illegal status to at least six other E. coli strains, including O26, which can also make people violently sick.

The meat industry has opposed such a change, saying it is not needed. Among the arguments the industry has used was one stubborn fact: no outbreak in this country from the rarer strains of E. coli had ever been definitively tied to ground beef.

The industry can no longer make that argument.

“It might act as a catalyst,” James Marsden, a professor of food safety and security at Kansas State University, said about the outbreak and recall. “Clearly it’s back on the front burner, that’s for sure, and clearly U.S.D.A. is under pressure.”

The federal Agriculture Department has been trying for several years to decide what to do about the additional strains of E. coli. The issue now falls in the lap of the Obama administration’s new head of food safety at the department, Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, who was appointed last month.

Dr. Hagen has yet to say publicly what she plans to do. But in a written statement provided to The New York Times, she said, “In order to best prevent illnesses and deaths from dangerous E. coli in beef, our policies need to evolve to address a broader range of these pathogens, beyond E.coli O157:H7.” She added, “Our approach should ensure that public health and food safety policy keeps pace with the demonstrated advances in science and data about food-borne illness to best protect consumers.”

The agency has said that it is reluctant to make additional forms of toxic E. coli illegal in ground beef until it has developed a rapid test that can detect those strains in packing plants. Such tests are not expected to be ready until at least late next year.

The beef industry argued against declaring the additional E. coli strains illegal in an Aug. 18 letter that the American Meat Institute, a trade group, sent to the agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack.

Giving the strains illegal status could “cause more harm than good,” the letter said, by forcing costly testing when resources would be better spent on measures to prevent bacteria from getting into the meat in the first place.

It said that measures the industry had taken to combat the most common strain of E. coli were also effective against the other strains, and it urged the agency to conduct further studies before making a decision.

Finally, the letter pointed to the absence of beef-related outbreaks involving the rarer strains and concluded that they did not represent a public health emergency.

James H. Hodges, the meat institute’s executive vice president, said that a single outbreak did not alter the industry’s position.

“We have never said it wasn’t a potential public health problem,” Mr. Hodges said. “The debate is what’s the appropriate regulatory program.”

Michael Martin, a spokesman for Cargill, said the company was working to determine what had gone wrong.

“Certainly there may be a need to look at this differently,” he said. “There’s now an apparent incident involving O26 in beef, and being committed to food safety, we’ve got to certainly take a look at this.”

The ground beef in the recall was produced June 11 at a Cargill packing plant in Wyalusing, Pa., and eventually sold through BJ’s Wholesale Club stores in eight East Coast states, according to the U.S.D.A.

Later in June, a person in New York State fell ill with E. coli O26. In July, two people in Maine became sick, in separate incidents.

Typical symptoms of E. coli infection are bloody diarrhea and stomach cramps, but severe cases can lead to kidney failure and sometimes can be fatal. Officials said none of the three people in this case were hospitalized.

Investigators interviewed the three victims and found that the person in New York and one of those in Maine had bought beef at BJ’s. One had eaten the meat and another had handled the raw hamburger at a barbecue but did not recall eating any.

Infection can be spread if someone eats meat that is not fully cooked or if someone who handles raw meat then touches something they put in their mouth, like food or utensils.

The New York victim also gave investigators some frozen ground beef and said it was left over from the BJ’s purchase, although it was no longer in the store packaging. Initial tests on the beef found O26. Further tests completed this week found that the bacteria had the same genetic fingerprint as the one that caused the outbreak, according to the New York State health department.

In the meantime, investigators had traced the BJ’s beef to Cargill and a specific production lot. The U.S.D.A. announced the recall on Saturday.

Officials said that the beef was no longer in BJs’ meat cases but that consumers might still have it in their freezers at home.

There have been occasional outbreaks of the rarer types of E. coli associated with beef in other countries but not here. In 2007, state investigators in North Dakota suspected that ground beef might have been the cause of an outbreak involving one of the rare E. coli strains but they were unable to reach a definitive conclusion.

Attention to the additional strains of E. coli increased this spring when there was a nationwide recall of romaine lettuce that had been linked to one of the rarer types of the bacteria.