Why is E. coli making a comeback?

Herb Weisbaum • Profile • E-mail

It has been a really bad year for the meat industry. A record 29 million pounds of contaminated ground beef has been recalled so far this year.

The culprit is E.coli O157:H7, the same nasty bacteria that caused the widely publicized Jack in the Box outbreak in 1993 and the nationwide spinach recall last year.

No one has exact numbers, but this bad meat has sickened dozens of people across the country, and in some cases, changed their lives forever.

Cynthia Cintura, a mother in Hemet, Calif., made spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner back in May. Two days later, her daughter Lauren — only 4 years old at the time — became extremely ill.

“It was the worst experience of my life.” Cintura says. “Every day I was just basically praying, hoping that she would get through this.”

Lauren spent three weeks at San Diego Children’s Hospital. It took eight dialysis treatments and five blood transfusions to save her life. Doctors say she could develop kidney or liver problems as she grows older.

“Our food is supposed to be safe,” Lauren’s mother says. “Well, it’s definitely not safe enough.”

“We don’t know why we’re seeing this blip,” says Dr. David Goldman of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

In fact, the uptick comes as a surprise to everyone. Until this summer, great progress had been made in reducing E.coli contamination in ground beef.

Dr. Goldman says a variety of possible causes need to be considered. “Is there more of it (E.coli O157:H7) in the cattle? Is there more of it in the environment? Are there changes in the practices in the processing plants? Is this pathogen becoming more virulent?”

The meat industry suggests two other possibilities — consumers who are not properly cooking ground meat, and more aggressive investigations by public health authorities.

“A lot of times recalls in and of themselves indicate the system is working,” says James Hodges, president of the American Meat Institute Foundation.

Cooking ground meat Cook ground meat, where bacteria can spread during grinding, to at least 160°F. Information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention links eating undercooked ground beef with a higher risk of illness. Remember, color is not a reliable indicator of doneness. Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of your burgers. Thorough cooking to an internal temperature of 160 °F throughout kills E. coli O157:H7.                                                          Source: fightbac.org

Hodges tells me the industry is “extremely concerned” about the current situation and “aggressively trying to understand what is happening.”

Seattle attorney Bill Marler, who represents more E.coli victims than any other lawyer in the country, blames both the government and industry. He calls some of USDA’s policies “silly” and he says the meat industry has gotten “a little bit lazy.” A few weeks ago, he called for congressional hearings into the situation.

USDA hasn’t announced it yet, but Dr. Goldman tells me the agency plans to meet with consumer groups, industry representatives, and scientists to figure out how to address the E.coli problem.

USDA inspectors, who are in meat plants every day, have just been told to verify within the next 30 days that proper food safety procedures are being used.

USDA also plans to expand its testing program to check the raw components of ground beef for bacterial contamination. Hamburger meat is made from a number of ingredients, such as muscle meat and the trimmings that are cut off steaks and roasts.

The most significant change in agency policy lowers the threshold for action when bad meat is discovered.

Until now, USDA had what attorney Marler calls “a stupid policy.” It would not ask for a recall (it doesn’t have the authority to order one) if E. coli or some other harmful bacteria was found in an opened package in someone’s refrigerator or freezer. The assumption was that the consumer had somehow contaminated the meat.

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