E. coli outbreaks, recalls reminder of challenges to food safety
Denver Post reporter Dave Migoya wrote an article for today's paper about UFG's recent recall of over 5 million pounds of ground beef. Migoya, who covered the 2002 ConAgra beef recall and E. coli outbreak, interviewed several players from the previous outbreak to gain perspective on the current recall:
Despite the improvements in the science, critics say the nation's food-safety system is still riddled with problems."It's the same flawed recall system, where consumers can't find out whether the meat in their freezer is poisoned," said Bill Marler, a food-safety attorney in Seattle.
Federal law makes the information a trade secret.
In the United recall, the latest technology allowed scientists at the Colorado Department of Health and Environment to link a pair of illnesses here to the same E. coli pathogen sickening several people in California.
The Colorado scientists used an international computer database called PulseNet, created by officials who track illnesses.
"We then saw 11 cases with the same DNA fingerprint in five states," said Jim Beebe, Colorado's chief microbiologist.
"By using information shared worldwide, we can identify outbreaks that once were only viewed as isolated events," Beebe said.
Once Colorado made the link and the source was identified, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on June 3 that United had issued a 75,000- pound recall of ground beef processed at its plant on April 20.
