After E. coli outbreak, Hoss's switches meat producers
Hoss's, a restaurant chain that operates restaurants in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, has changed meat suppliers after an E. coli outbreak was traced to one of its restaurants, according to an article posted at Lancaster Farming. Health officials are still investigating the outbreak, but believe it was caused by consumption of mechanically tenderized steaks purchased at Hoss's restaurant.
From the article:
According to the department of health, five people ate E. coli tainted steaks at four Hoss’s locations in Centre, Dauphin, Venango, and York counties between March 24 and 29. Each person was infected with a potentially deadly strain of E. coli 0157, the same type strain that killed three people and hospitalized hundreds last summer as a result of consuming E. coli-tainted spinach.The department states each person ate a different cut of steak, but the fact they got it at Hoss’s is the only common link. Four of the five people were hospitalized with symptoms of E. coli, which include severe bloody diarrhea.
Symptoms usually appear five days later and if not treated, can cause severe kidney damage and even death.
Hoss’s stated it would be eliminating three practices it has used to tenderize and flavor its steaks before they arrive at a restaurant: blade tenderization, vacuum marination and marinade injection.
While Hoss's decision to switch suppliers reveals their good faith intentions, this decision merely contributes to faulty USDA corrective actions to reduce future E.coli outbreaks.
E.coli emanates from within animals' intestines, and is found on manure-covered hides. E.coli is not introduced at downline further processing establishments such as Hoss's which perform no slaughter, and have no dirty hides on their premises. The USDA's traditional cure-all for E.coli-contaminated meat is for the downline further processor to switch suppliers. While this action will insulate Hoss's from future purchases of previously contaminated meat from the noncompliant slaughter establishment, USDA simultaneously allows the noncompliant slaughter plant to continue operations as is in the total absence of any corrective actions to prevent future recurrences.
Therefore, the slaughter plant will continue to ship contaminated meat into commerce, only Hoss's will not be included in the list of plants which will receive future shipments of contaminated meat.
Until the USDA requires corrective actions at the slaughter plants which are guilty of INTRODUCING E.coli bacteria into food, recurrences of consumer sicknesses are virtually guaranteed. USDA must focus its enforcement actions at slaughter plants which are the SOURCE of E.coli, not at downline further processing plants which are merely unwitting DESTINATIONS of meat laced with the invisible bacteria.
John Munsell
Foundation for Accountability in Regulatory Enforcement (FARE)
Miles City, MT
May 2, 2007