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Ranchers.net

Wonder how much this "E Coli Contaminated" beef sells for? :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Stephen J. Hedges • Chicago Tribune
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Friday, November 16, 2007
(MCT) WASHINGTON—One federal inspector called it the “E. coli loophole.” Another said nobody would buy the product if they knew.

The officials are referring to the little-discussed fact that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has deemed it acceptable for meat companies to cook and sell meat on which E. coli, a bacterium 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 particularly virulent strain of the bacteria.

The department allows companies to put this E. coli-positive meat in “cook only” category.

Cooking the meat, according to the USDA and producers, destroys the bacteria and makes it safe to eat as pre-cooked hamburgers, meat loaf, crumbled taco meat and other products.

But some USDA inspectors said 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 said the 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 asked to remain anonymous—like other federal inspectors interviewed who feared they could lose their jobs.

There is no evidence “cook only” meat has directly sickened consumers, but some inspectors contend that the practice conceals significantly higher levels of E. coli bacteria in packing plants. 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 already deemed free of E. coli, the department inspectors said.

Department officials said they do not track how much meat is put into “cook only” categories, but interviews with inspectors suggested it is a significant amount.

“The government just keeps putting out that we’ve reduced E. coli bacteria levels by 50 percent and all of that,” an inspector said. “And we haven’t done nothing. We’ve just covered it up.”

The USDA denied this. In answers to written questions from the Chicago Tribune, department officials said the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service collects its own random samples without waiting for test results from plants.

Meat industry representatives and the USDA said there is no risk from beef that is fully cooked, since cooking meat at above 160 degrees Fahrenheit kills pathogens such as E. coli.

Meat companies also said they have taken significant steps to eliminate E. coli in meat during the slaughtering process, including lactic acid washes of carcasses and steam treatments in which carcasses are heated to kill the bacteria.

Meat found with E. coli isn’t worth as much, they said.

“If raw ground beef has to go into a ‘cook only’ category, it loses value,” said Randall Huffman, senior vice president for scientific affairs at the American Meat Institute, an industry group. “There’s not as big a market for that.”

© 2007 Chicago Tribune
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