More Meat Recalled - E-Coli Again Implicated

When I was a teenager, I worked with my father in his laboratory. He was a microbiologist and researcher. As a summer job I was a lab technician for a couple of years. Today that would never happen because of liability suits and other regulations, but the 1960’s were less litigious ties.

While working in the lab I often handled specimens that contained Escherichia Coli, E-Coli for short. This bacterium lives in the lower intestinal tracks of all kinds of animals including humans. It helps the body digest the food and when confined to the gut is a good bacterium. When it gets into our food supply it’s a bad bacterium. Strains of E-Coli cause everything from diarrhea to death in some patients. So how does it get into food? In a word, poop!

Fecal matter contains E-Coli and when food handlers do not take proper precautions like washing their hands after using the bathroom, it gets into the food chain. Not a pretty picture. Now I don’t have proof, but the recent outbreaks of e-coli in ground beef point to a big problem. First that meat packing employees are not practicing preventative hygiene, or they are not slaughtering animals in a way that prevents cross contamination from the animals own gut. To me this means there is not enough education of the dangers of this problem to employees, or the USDA and FDA inspections are ineffective or infrequent. I would bet both are the case.

Budget cuts in the USDA and FDA have been cited in the pet food problems that occurred back in the spring of this year. There is no reason to believe that anything has changed, and as many warned it would eventually affect the food humans eat. Well that pigeon has come home to roost. Last week Topps Meats closed its doors after a recall of 21 million pounds of ground meat, and this week Cargill recalled 844,812 pounds of ground beef patties because of our friend, E-Coli. Cargill is a much bigger company than Topps and perhaps it can withstand a massive recall, but in the end it’s going to come down to better practices and more inspections.

Meanwhile here is a tip. Cook meat well done, and wash your hands before preparing food and afterward. Take my advice, I know from experience. I handled hundreds of specimens infected with E-Coli and never became infected. Hand washing is the reason. Bon Appétit!