E. Coli

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported on the unfortunate story of a 22 year-old woman who became paralyzed due to a reaction to E.coli that she contracted from a hamburger.  Even though preventable food-borne illnesses like this one continue to occur, not enough is being done to ensure safe food for consumers.

In 2008, USDA tested ground beef at processing facilities it regulates and found deadly E. coli contamination 54 times.  USDA already found it 31 times this year. But what happened after that? You might assume that the agency tried to find all the product in those batches that were tested so that it could be removed from store shelves before it could harm the public. That’s where you’d be wrong.

We don’t know exactly what happens because USDA refuses to explain it to the public and has blocked our attempts to use the Freedom of Information Act to determine it by looking at their records.  Just last week, USDA officials reneged on their promise for a 2009 meeting to explain exactly what actions the government takes when it finds the deadly E. coli  O157:H7 pathogen in products that have left meat plants. 

What we do know is that most testing is done at the smallest plants, so positive tests often reveal only the tips of the iceberg of how much product might be involved, especially because these small plants often buy scraps of beef from other larger companies to process into ground beef.  After government health departments link illnesses to particular product, all efforts are made to identify the rest of the “iceberg” and recall as much contaminated product as possible.  But, until someone gets sick, even confirmed E. coli 0157:H7 tests in ground beef, lead to a much milder response by USDA. If there are no illnesses and USDA has only a test showing contamination, it will check company paperwork at the slaughterhouses that supplied the beef to the processor and will likely collect one or more samples of current production to see if it is contaminated.  This will indicate nothing about the specific production lot from which the positive test came and will do nothing to alert consumers to the potentially deadly beef that is still in the market, if not already in their freezers.

How many more lives have to be sacrificed before changes are made in the food safety system?  Real action must be taken to prevent more senseless tragedies like this one from occurring. USDA needs to update their E. coli testing and response policies. 

– Felicia Nestor

Those of us who grew up in the 1950’s fondly remember the Nestle’s television and radio commercials featuring the wooden puppets Danny O’Day and his trusty basset hound sidekick Farfel extolling the virtues of the company’s cocoa powder for milk.  For those who were not yet born to experience such great culture, Danny O’Day would sing: “N-E-S-T-L-E-S. Nestle’s makes the very best”… and Farfel would chime in “Cha-a-aw-klit.” (If you want to see what I am talking about, there are various renditions of the commercial on the Internet). Back then, Nestle’s had a wholesome image among U.S. consumers.

Fast-forward to 2009. Nestle’s now finds itself in an epidemiological investigation involving its Toll-House raw cookie dough that may be contaminated with E.coli 0157:H7 which has sickened at least 71 consumers in 30 states according to the Centers for Disease Control. The company has also recalled various products made with the cookie dough. The focus of the investigation has been the Nestle’s plant in Danville, Virginia.

Last weekend, a couple of news reports surfaced that revealed that inspectors for both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Commonwealth of Virginia (that was contracted by FDA to do inspections) were denied access to Nestle’s production records at the Danville plant going back to at least 2004. Nestle’s did not do anything illegal since under current law a company does not have to turn over its records to FDA unless there is a public health emergency, such as a food recall.  Nestle’s is claiming that it is co-operating with the FDA in the current investigation, but if the company were so confident of its food safety procedures in the past, why did it not simply turn over its production records when asked by inspectors? Had they had access to those records, the inspectors might have spotted something that could have exposed a weakness in the production process and they could have advised the company to take remedial action to correct those deficiencies BEFORE the company put adulterated product into commerce and people got sick.

The press revelations prove that that the FDA needs new statutory authority to prevent food borne illness outbreaks from occurring. They also show that FDA needs a strong and robust inspection program to make sure that the spirit and the letter of the law are being followed.

It would ruin my childhood memories if I saw an updated version of the Nestle’s commercial from the 1950’s that went something like this:
“N-E-S-T-L-E-S.  Nestle’s tries its very best...to hide."

– Tony Corbo

Now, it’s E. coli contamination of all things Toll-House cookie dough.  According to the Centers for Disease Control, 65 people in 29 states have become ill from either eating raw cookie dough or consuming another food item that became contaminated from coming into contact with raw cookie dough. Eating raw cookie dough is never a smart thing to do because there is always a chance that the dough is contaminated with a food-borne pathogen, but the usual culprit is salmonella from unpasteurized eggs – not E. coli which is more commonly associated with beef products.

Again, as was the case with the recent food-borne illness outbreaks associated with peanuts, peanut butter, spinach, and alfalfa sprouts, the Food and Drug Administration did not know there was a problem with the cookie dough until people started to get sick. We found out with the Peanut Corporation of America outbreak that FDA inspectors had not been in the Georgia plant that was the center of the outbreak for eight years. Had inspectors been there on a regular basis, they would have seen that the plant was manufacturing food under unsanitary conditions.  Information on the last FDA inspection of the Nestle’s plant involved in the cookie dough outbreak still has not been released, but we would not be surprised to learn if FDA has not been in there for years.

That is why we were dismayed to hear of comments attributed to the new FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg last week who stated that more frequent inspections of food establishments are not the answer to preventing food-borne illness, but more “smart” inspections were.  We have heard that line before from past FDA commissioners and that thinking has gotten us to where we are today. “Smart” inspections has been code in the past to fewer inspections, not more. It seems that she is being advised by some of the same people who have fought for decades transforming the FDA into an inspection agency. This is very troubling.

 
FDA publicly says that it wants to prevent food-borne illnesses. But it seems that the agency still wants to rely on the honor system and let industry police itself. You need “cops-on-the-beat” to prevent problems from happening. Otherwise, FDA will continue to be the fire department that puts out the fire after people have already been injured. The recent food-borne illness outbreaks prove that a paradigm shift is needed at FDA, but as long as there is resistance by key leaders within that agency to commit to a rigorous food inspection program, more consumers will get sick and even die.

Whole Foods proudly asserts that it is “highly selective about what [it] sell[s], dedicated to stringent Quality Standards, and committed to sustainable agriculture.” Consumers have responded to these promises of quality, as the chain has experienced tremendous growth in the last couple of years.  Which is why so many consumers, who choose to pay more at Whole Foods based on its promises of quality, were troubled to find out that that the company had to recall ground beef from its stores on August 8th.

The decision to pull the beef from the stores was made after learning that seven people infected with E. coli 0157:H7 had recently purchased ground beef from Whole Foods. How did this happen given the market’s commitment to safety and health? In all fairness, it wasn’t entirely Whole Foods’ fault. The meat was from Coleman Natural Foods, which produces natural and organic products that are supposed to meet the high standards at Whole Foods. However, what Whole Foods didn’t know is that Coleman was getting some of its meat processed at Nebraska Beef, a company that has a long history of safety violations.

In the past two months alone, E. coli contamination has led to two large recalls from Nebraska Beef. Last month, over 5 million pounds of ground beef were recalled, and this month’s recall totals 1.2 million pounds. Sadly, these types of problems are nothing new. Back in 2003, USDA tried to shut down the plant, citing unsanitary conditions. But Nebraska Beef filed a lawsuit and USDA backed down, agreeing to simply increase monitoring. However, since then there have been numerous food borne illness outbreaks traced to the company, including these most recent two, which show that whatever system is in place to regulate contaminants is inadequate.

The fact that Whole Foods didn’t know that it was selling meat processed by Nebraska Beef undercuts the claims about their stringent standards. 

Whole Foods should be responsible for knowing where the products they sell were processed and making sure they buy from plants with good food safety practices.  And the USDA needs to crack down on plants with repeated food safety problems. 

Let’s hope that Whole Foods learned a lesson about checking out their suppliers.  And in the meantime, remember that there are lots of places you can find healthy and sustainable food.  Check out the Eat Well Guide to find them.

Summertime is perfect for BBQs, and Wegmans – a regional supermarket chain – has an interesting recipe for “cooking” hamburgers. Wonder why cooking is in quotes? In a BBQ hamburger recipe on their website, it is recommended to use three pounds of irradiated ground beef, cook the burgers until desired doneness, and if you’re using non-irradiated beef, cook to 160 degrees. 

This means Wegmans is telling consumers that irradiated beef doesn’t have to be cooked to 160 degrees, which contradicts the U.S. Department of Agriculture guidance that ALL ground beef should be cooked to that temperature. Take a glance at the photo in the recipe…does that burger look cooked to you?

This is not the first time Wegmans grocery stores has used misleading advertising about the safety of undercooked irradiated meat. Despite being reprimanded by the USDA last year for improperly telling consumers they could undercook irradiated meat,  Wegmans is still on a mission to convince consumers that irradiation is the silver bullet for foodborne illness.

In a recent store flyer, Wegmans told customers that irradiated beef is "insurance against…E. coli." But irradiating meat does not necessarily kill all of the bacteria, nor does it sterilize the meat. There is also still a chance of cross-contamination from handling the meat in the processing plant or even in your own kitchen. Furthermore, food irradiation, a process whereby food is exposed to gamma rays, x-rays, or electron-beams to kill off bacteria, creates its own problems. Recent studies have shown that irradiating food may promote cancer development, cause genetic damage, and deplete vitamins.

Despite all of the evidence against the safety of irradiation, Wegmans grocery store has been one of its most vocal supporters, and has been pushing the technology any way they can.  You can tell Wegmans to stop misinforming the public about the safety of irradiated beef by signing a letter to the store.

And next time you’re at a backyard BBQ, ask where your meat’s from and make sure it’s cooked properly.

Hopefully your meal won’t be moving on your plate.

You may have read about the meat industry’s fun new practice of using carbon monoxide (CO) to turn meat artificially red for an indefinite amount of time. This deceptive technology may not be harmful in itself, but prevents consumers from using their own sense of sight to choose fresh, healthy meat at the grocery store. Since the color can last up to a year, shoppers have no way of knowing if their meat is rotten till after they get it home and unwrapped, and notice a bad odor or slimy texture.

The next idea, presented by Dr. Joseph Sebranek, professor in the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University, Ames, IA, on October 30, 2007 before the House Agriculture Committee, is to combine this technology with irradiation—a process that may be very harmful. When meat is irradiated, it can turn an unappetizing color—purplish or even greenish. But pump some CO in there, and meat is back to cherry-red—eliminating one indicator that allows consumers to steer clear of meat that’s been zapped.

The combination of these two technologies is the ultimate in treating the symptoms instead of the problem—masking bad meat with one techno-fix after another, rather than simply producing cleaner food. And get this—between the two, we can now extend the meat’s shelf life to… drumroll please… 38 days. Who would want to eat a cut of meat that’s well over a month old?  And the joke is that even after those 38 days after over, the meat will remain red—so we’ve got to rely on grocery chains to take perfectly good-looking meat off their shelves.

Gross.

-Erica Schuetz
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So, if Food & Water Watch’s reports haven’t already broken your gross-o-meter, give these next few paragraphs a read and check it again.

As you may know from yesterday’s blog, FDA is considering relaxing rules on irradiation, lifting labeling requirements or substituting the word “pasteurized.” The reason why they want to do this, though, is where the gag factor comes in. It’s so you can eat poo.

In the factory-farm meat production model, faster is always better. High production is the whole goal, so little things like sanitation and animal welfare can sometimes fall by the wayside. Remember that disturbing video the Humane Society put out a few months ago, leading to the massive Hallmark-Westland beef recall?  When a “downer” cow is pushed and dragged across the manure-covered floor of a facility before going to slaughter, and is possibly cut and injured, the resulting meat is contaminated with fecal matter, vomit, pus… you get the picture. The health result of this, also, is pretty much as gross as you’d imagine.

It would seem clear that the solution should begin right there in the plant, with improving conditions. But there’s another option—one that some industry players favor because it doesn’t threaten the crank-'em-out factory-farm model. Food irradiation kills most bacteria—so you don’t have to make sure the meat is clean. Just sterilize that poo!  Then we can just eat it. Yum!

In addition to likely being dirty, irradiated meat contains some chemicals that materialize during the irradiation process. The scariest substances, known as 2-ACBs (short for 2-alkylcyclobutanones, if you were wondering), have been linked to colon cancer, and have never been found anywhere in the world outside of irradiated meat. They’re formed when fat is exposed to radiation, and have been definitively identified in irradiated beef, chicken, pork, lamb, eggs, peanuts, salmon, mangoes, papayas, and more. FDA has never studied the potential health hazards of 2-ACBs, and scientists don’t know how the body metabolizes them. And that’s just one substance. Just, you might say, a taste of irradiation’s goodness…

Every story needs a moral, and this time it’s more like one of those old-school warning-style fairy tales. Basically, irradiating dirty meat doesn’t make it clean, and can even add bonus nasties that you’ve never even heard of.  But we hate to leave you simply with, “and then the wolf gobbled her up.”  There is, as always, our power as consumers. Since we currently have labeling for irradiated foods, we can make informed choices about the food we choose to purchase. And—for now—we can use our eyesight!  More on this next time…

-Erica Schuetz
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Would you let a doctor zap one billion X-rays all at once through your body if you were injured? Would you let your food be treated with that same amount of radiation?

Whether poultry, meat, fruit or vegetable, food around the world is being exposed to high doses of radiation under the veil of protecting consumers from foodborne illness.  Zapped! Irradiation and the Death of Food, a new book by Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter and researcher Mark Worth,  explores why this process, known as food irradiation, poses numerous health risks to consumers and ignores the fundamental problems plaguing food production systems.

Watch this video of Wenonah Hauter reading at th book launch at DC cafe Busboys & Poets, and learn more about this dangerous technology.

- Erin Greenfield
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