Vigilant Industry, Vigilant Consumers

A recent comment by a prominent infectious disease expert underscores why Alabama Extension food safety experts such as Patti West stress time and again that Americans must take responsibility for their safety when it comes to consuming food and beverages.

“If you gave me a million, zillion dollars and said give me a [beef processing] plant that doesn’t have E. coli, I couldn’t do it,” said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, was quoted Dec. 6 by the New York Times.

“It’s not about the will. It’s about the ability.”

Osterholm was referring to stringent efforts under way to rid beef processing plants — and ultimately the products that emerge from them — of traces of potentially deadly E. coli O157:H7 and other food-borne pathogens.

West, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System regional agent specializing in food safety who operates Extension’s Food Testing and Labeling Center, does not fault the beef industry for any lapses in food safety. In her view, the industry is making a valiant effort working with federal authorities to reduce these risks. In fact, the industry already is spending some $350 million a year to remove pathogens from meat products sold to the public, the New York Times reports.

The problem is that bacteria are inherent in any type of food production process where live animals are involved, whether it’s beef, poultry or sushi. In the case of beef production, research by Mohammed Koohmaraie, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Meat Animal Research Center in Nebraska, revealed that most E. coli contamination occurred from the hides of animals that were exposed to mud and manure in feedlots.

Barring irradiation, West and other food safety experts maintain that no other method currently available through science can safeguard completely against this type of exposure.

On top of that is the fact that the nation’s food safety system is manned and inspected by human beings, all of whom occasionally are prone to mistakes as well as lapses of judgment.

But West says this fact shouldn’t concern consumers so long as they’re cooking beef to at least 155 degrees Fahrenheit and follow safe handling and cooking methods in the course of meal preparation.

“So long as you cook your meat to an internal temperature of 155 degrees Fahrenheit, you don’t have to worry about E.coli and other food pathogens,” West says.

Ground beef, far more than steaks, pose a special risk because E. coli and other bacteria can be mixed throughout the product in the course of grinding and can survive if the interior of the product is not heated to the prescribed 155 degrees Fahrenheit. Steaks pose less of a risk because any residual traces of bacteria on the surface are killed from cooking.

Moreover, West says people always should bear in mind that when they are handling raw meat, there is always the risk of exposure to E. coli, either from direct contact with the beef or from some other item, such as foods or cooking utensils that have been exposed to the meat.

Likewise, the absence of redness within the interior of the cooked beef is no guarantee that the meat has been thoroughly cooked. The only way to be sure is to use a meat thermometer.

Thermometers should be considered essential equipment in cases where one is cooking for people who could suffer serious complications from exposure to E. coli and other food pathogens — the very young and old as well as others who suffer from immune deficiencies, West says.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at December 7, 2007 10:54 AM