Aftermath of an E. coli outbreak: industry changes
In yesterday's New York Times, Chris Drew and Andy Martin's article, "Many Red Flags Preceded a Recall of Hamburger" detailed what is known about the Topps ground beef E. coli outbreak and recall. The story contained the following:
Federal investigators said they had recently learned that the company failed to require adequate testing on the raw beef it bought from its domestic suppliers, and it sometimes mixed tested and untested meat in its grinding machines.The Agriculture Department acknowledged that its safety inspectors, who were in the Topps plant for an hour or two each day, never cited the company for these problems.
Additionally, Topps, like many other beef processors, had bought an increasing amount of meat from overseas. Some types of meat from foreign countries — where E. coli has not been prevalent — are not required to be tested for contamination. But the Agriculture Department said the Topps case had prompted it to consider requiring such checks.
In response to the problems, the Agriculture Department directed its inspectors on Oct. 12 to conduct a nationwide survey of what meat plants are doing to fight E. coli., and it plans to send special assessment teams into any plants that seem to be lagging to urge them to adopt more stringent measures.
Those more stringent measures were discussed at a news conference held by the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service yesterday. In conjunction with the news conference, FSIS posted a list of new "key initiatives" for federally inspected plants that produce raw beef products. USA Today reported on those key initiatives today, putting them in perspective of what has happened in the meat industry in the last year with regards to E. coli O157:H7:
There have been 15 E. coli O157:H7 recalls in beef this year, eight of which caused illnesses. That's up from eight recalls last year and no related illnesses.The rise in recalls and positive E. coli tests for the first time this decade indicate "something has changed," said Richard Raymond, the USDA's undersecretary for food safety.
The USDA now will test meat at large plants about 12 times a year, up from seven. Plants with more problems also will be tested more. Well-run smaller plants may be tested less often than they have been. Before, the USDA tested all beef plants' products about seven times a year.
Meat plants have been required since the late 1990s to have good E. coli controls. Companies had to reassess those plans in 2002. Given conditions at Topps, the USDA says more supervision is needed to ensure compliance and that USDA inspectors can adequately check plants. As of next month, plants must verify that they're effectively controlling E. coli O157:H7. "We can and must do better," Raymond says.
Herb Weisbaum of KOMO 4 TV in Seattle also reported on the state of the meat industry and the USDA's new initiatives. Notice the last sentence from this excerpt:
As of November, all beef processing plants and slaughter houses will be expected to verify that they are effectively controlling e.coli during processing and slaughter.Inspectors, who are in meat plants every day, are being retrained to do a better job of making sure proper food safety procedures are being used.
But even the most aggressive testing programs won't catch all the e.coli that could be in the meat. So to be safe, you need to treat all ground beef as if it is contaminated. [emphasis added]
