May I have some more Poo on my burger?
Yikes! From the
Seattle Times:
Beef with E. coli slips through "loophole"
One federal inspector calls it the "E. coli loophole." Another says, "Nobody would buy it if they knew."
The officials are referring to the little-discussed fact that the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has deemed it acceptable for meat companies to cook and sell meat on which E. coli, a bacteria that can sicken and even kill humans, is found during processing.
The "E. coli loophole" affects millions of pounds of beef each year that test positive for the presence of E. coli O157:H7, a virulent strain of the bacteria.
The agency allows companies to put this E. coli-positive meat in a special category: "cook only." Cooking the meat, the USDA and producers say, destroys the bacteria and makes it safe to eat as precooked hamburgers, meat loaf, crumbled taco meat and other products.
Some USDA inspectors say the "cook-only" practice means higher-than-appropriate levels of E. coli are tolerated in packing plants, raising the chance that clean meat will become contaminated. They say the "cook-only" practice is part of the reason for this year's sudden rise in incidents of E. coli contamination.
"All the product that is E. coli positive, they put a 'cooking-only' tag on it," said one inspector, who like other federal inspectors interviewed, asked to remain anonymous for fear they would lose their jobs. "They [companies] will test, and everything that's positive, they slap that label on."
There is no evidence "cook-only" meat has directly sickened consumers. But some inspectors said the practice conceals significantly higher levels of E. coli in packing plants than the companies admit. That's because companies that find E. coli are allowed to shift that meat immediately into "cook-only" lines, without reporting it to the USDA.
The USDA regularly conducts tests for E. coli in slaughtering plants but only on meat that packing companies have deemed free of E. coli, the agency inspectors said. USDA officials said they do not track how much meat is put into "cook-only" categories, but interviews with a half-dozen inspectors suggested it is a significant amount.
"The government keeps putting out that we've reduced E. coli by 50 percent," an inspector said. "And we haven't done nothing. We've just covered it up."
A bit more:
Meat companies rejected the charges that corners are being cut. Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for Tyson Foods, one of the nation's largest beef producers, said his company has developed a special testing program, Tyson Total N60, to detect E. coli. The program is so effective, Mickelson said, that other companies use it.
Cargill declined to comment; meatpacking firm Swift Foods did not return phone calls.
Inspectors interviewed for this story challenged the suggestion that E. coli is a small problem. One said a large meatpacking plant where he worked produced 50,000 pounds a week of E. coli-positive beef that was tagged "cook only."
"It's a smoke screen," the inspector said. "They [the meat companies] are still producing a half-million pounds a week of E. coli product, and we're patting them on their back."
Sure, E. coli can be denatured by heat but what about all of the other viruses and prions out there. Dirty meat is dirty meat. My other thought is that if this meat is contaminated with shit, what chemicals are used (heavy-duty sanitizers and cleaning agents) that might also splash up and contaminate the meat.
This is what happens when the drive for profit takes a wrong turn and quality of the product suffers. You are what you eat after all...
Please note: This article was written by Stephen J. Hedges at the Washington desk of the Chicago Times. His report can be found here:
E. coli loophole cited in recalls
The Seattle Times version had been edited down a bit...
Posted by DaveH at November 12, 2007 7:54 PM