wheres the beef

can you think back to your early twenties, when you felt invincible and the sky was the limit?  now, could you imagine, waking up one day and being unable to move your lower body? it isnt as a result of a terrible accident, but is due to eating a home cooked hamburger. then, shortly thereafter, you begin experiencing stomach pains that progressively worsen, bloody diarrhea, both kidneys shut down, seizures that leave you unconscious, put in a coma to avoid having repeated seizures, and finally, after being in a coma for nine weeks, you wake up paralyzed from the waist down. unfortunately, this is what happened to stephanie smith, a twenty two year old childrens dance instructor.

youre probably wondering ‘how on earth could this happen?’ although ms. smiths condition is extreme (the toxin in e coli 0157:h7 penetrates the colon wall, damaging blood vessels and causing clots that can lead to seizures), each year, thousands of people fall ill from e. coli 0157:h7, and five to ten percent of these people develop infections that lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (a severe life threatening disease, in which the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail). despite a ban on selling beef contaminated with e. coli 0157:h7, (escherichia coli [e. coli] serotype O157:H7 is a rare variety of e. coli that produces large quantities of one or more related, potent toxins that cause severe damage to the lining of the intestines), there has been a surge of outbreaks since 2007 in the meat industry, which brings me to the most recent outbreak involving cargill.

for those of you, who cant live without eating those juicy beef burgers with all of the trimmings (literally), you may want to take a look at this ny times investigative piece on ‘e. coli path shows flaws in beef inspection’.  the ny times conducted its own investigation of ms. smiths story, and while obtaining information through interviews, government and corporate records, they uncovered unsafe practices of slaughterhouses and meat processing plants and also the inability of the u.s. department of agriculture to effectively and safely regulate them.

ive included excerpts of some unsettling findings reported in the article. the u.s. department of agriculture (usda) has not set federal requirements for grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen (causes disease) and the usda doesnt require strict adherence to rules and regulations by slaughterhouses and meat processing plants, but merely encourages them to follow good practices. the agriculture department opted to carry out its own tests for e.coli, but acknowledges that its 15,000 spot checks a year at thousands of meat plants and groceries nationwide is not meant to be comprehensive. many slaughterhouses and processors have voluntarily adopted testing regimes, yet they vary greatly in scope from plant to plant.

a significant number of meat plants are failing to follow their own safety procedures in handling ground beef. within weeks of the cargill outbreak in 2007, usda officials swept across the country, conducting spot checks at 224 meat plants to assess their efforts to combat e. coli. although inspectors had been monitoring these plants all along, officials found serious problems at 55, that were failing to follow their own safety plans. ‘every time we look, we find out that things are not what we hoped they would be,’ said loren d. lange, an executive associate in the agriculture departments food safety division. also many large slaughterhouses have unwritten agreements to sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for e.coli because of fear of setting off a recall of ingredients they sold to others.

large meat processing plants place onus on suppliers to check for bacteria and when and if the large meat processing plants conduct their own testing it is done only after all of the ingredients are ground together. ground beef is not made from one piece of meat, it contains raw materials from numerous suppliers, therefore this means that various sections of cows and different cows are used to make one pattie. this practice makes it extremely difficult to identify the source of contamination, which makes it virtually impossible for someones hind to be put on the chopping block. these ingredients are typically low-grade and cut from areas of the cow that are more likely to have had contact with fecal matter, which carries e. coli. as with other slaughterhouses, the potential for contamination is present every step of the way, according to workers and federal inspectors. the cattle often arrive with smears of feedlot feces that harbor the e.coli pathogen, and hide must be removed carefully to keep it off the meat. this is especially critical for trimmings sliced from the outer surface of the carcass.  federal inspectors based at the plant are supposed to monitor the hide removal, but much can go wrong. workers slicing away the hide can inadvertently spread feces, the workers and inspectors say. the meat industry hides its unsafe practices and low-grade ingredients under the guise of trade mark secrets in which the usda guards as secrets too.

although the usda reminded consumers on its website that hamburgers had to be cooked to 160 degrees to be sure any e. coli is killed and urged them to use a thermometer to check the temperature, dr. mansour samadpour, a microbiologist who runs ieh laboratories in seattle, one of the meat industrys largest testing firms said, ‘in a warm kitchen, e. coli cells will double every 45 minutes.’ with the help from his laboratories, the times prepared three pounds of ground beef dosed with a strain of e. coli that is non harmful but acts in many ways like 0157:h7. although the safety instructions on the package were followed, e. coli remained on the cutting board even after it was washed with soap. a towel picked up large amounts of bacteria from the meat.

dr. kenneth petersen, an assistant administrator with the departments food safety and inspection service, said that the department could mandate testing, but that it needed to consider the impact on companies as well as consumers. ‘i have to look at the entire industry, not just what is best for public health,’ dr. petersen said.

so to all of my hamburger lovers, if youre still set on eating your beef burgers, think safety first! see if you can buy a whole cut of meat and have your butcher grind it for you, or buy ground beef from costco since theyre one of the few meat processors that actually tests trimmings prior to grinding.  it will cost you a few extra dollars but i think we can agree that it is very well worth it.

Advertisement