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Ranchers.net

Posted on Sat, Nov. 10, 2007
Inspectors admit to ‘E. coli loophole’ at plants
By STEPHEN J. HEDGES
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON | 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 U.S. Department of Agriculture has deemed it acceptable for 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 a particularly virulent strain, E. coli O157:H7.

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.

But some USDA inspectors say the “cook only” practice means that 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 be anonymous for fear of job loss.

“They (companies) will test, and everything that’s positive, they slap that label on.”

There is no evidence that “cook only” meat has directly sickened consumers. But some inspectors contend that the practice conceals higher levels of E. coli bacteria in packing plants than the companies admit to. 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 already deemed free of E. coli, the agency inspectors say. USDA officials say they do not track how much meat is put into “cook only” categories, but interviews with a half-dozen inspectors suggest it is a significant amount.

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

The USDA denied this. Department officials said the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service “collects its own random samples without waiting for test results from the plant.”



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The rise in E. coli cases
E. coli can be difficult to detect and prevent. The bacteria live in intestines of cattle, which tolerate it. It can contaminate meat during the slaughter process if fecal matter comes in contact with the meat portions of a carcass. That can happen in several ways, such as when workers accidentally puncture the digestive tract during removal, or when a cow’s hide, which might carry fecal dust, is taken off. In humans, E. coli poisoning can cause severe stomach cramps, bloody urine, diarrhea, kidney failure and even death.

The U.S. meat industry is bewildered by this year’s increased findings of E. coli contamination. Theories about the causes range from dry conditions in cattle feedlots, where cattle stand in manure, to changes in feed caused by high corn prices.

Whatever the reason, the result has been sick consumers. The largest recall so far this year involved the Topps Meat Co. of Elizabeth, N.J., which went out of business after it recalled 21.7 million pounds of ground beef because of E. coli contamination. About 40 people fell ill from Topps meat.

More recently, Cargill, the Minneapolis-based grain and foods giant, has recalled nearly 2 million pounds of ground beef because of E. coli concerns. And more than 3 million pounds of General Mills’ Totino’s and Jeno’s pizzas have been recalled because of E. coli in pepperoni.

Some inspectors contend that the E. coli increase is due to the methods used to slaughter cattle, as well as the practice of designating affected meat “cook only.”




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