Your Chance Of Picking Up The Wrong Pound of Ground Beef: 1 in 400.
We've been reading through some of the written comments the United States Department of Agriculture received in conjunction with the big April meeting on E. coli 0157:H7.
We found a letter from Dr. Harry F. Hull, a pediatrician from St. Paul, most interesting. Dr. Hull's career highlights includes stints as state epidemiologist for both Minnesota and New Mexico. He's both investigated outbreaks of E. coli 0157:H7, and as a pediatrician had the experience of having a 7-year old girl in his care die from hemolytic uremic syndrome from E. coli.
We are certain every court in the land would stipulate Dr. Hull as an expert witness.
So, we found this really eye-opening: After going though the contamination rates, Dr. Hull makes
this bold assertion:
"Simply put, at the present time, 1 in every 400 pounds of ground beef contains potentially deadly E. coli bacteria."
Dr. Hull says current approaches will reduce but "cannot eliminate" all E. coli contamination.
"Given the potentially disastrous consequences of eating just one hamburger contaminated with E. coli, the only level of contamination that is acceptable is O. This is what the American people expect and deserve," the pediatrician writes.
Dr. Hull, currently a consultant in infectious disease epidemiology, favors irradiation of all ground beef sold as an uncooked product, labeling it as pasteurized, USDA approval of the ready-to-eat petition, and a public information campaign on the safety of food radiation.
drink too much and then drives, ending up causing serious injury or death to someone else.
This "Health Hazard Alert" in Canada is pretty much like a recall in the United States, except there isn't much focus on returning the product nor on how much meat is actually involved. Still, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in both English and French is saying: "Do not consume this ground beef!" - "Ne pas manger cette viande hachée!"
M&M Meat Shops sell the Steakhouse Beef Burgers in 2.25 pound packages marked with PLU #188.
Seattle attorney Bill Marler is suing Organic Pastures, the nation's largest organic raw milk dairy, on behalf of two children who fell ill after consuming its products. Testing at the dairy farm near Fresno, Calif., did not detect the strain of E. coli that sickened the children, but a government report said the dairy was likely responsible.
The public sessions will be held on Wednesday, April 9, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday, April 10, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Georgetown, 2101 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Washington, DC.
actions, we sometimes cannot help but thinking the food industry and its regulators are in cahoots to drag out recalls and confuse the public.
An isolated case in an isolated place where no one has had E coli in four years. However, 8-year old Evie Hope Wray of Theodosia, MO was a confirmed E coli case; one that evolved into Hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), And HUS killed Evie, who was a soccer and cat-loving second-grader at Lutie Elementary School.