USDA may still define E. coli-positive primal beef as adulterated

The USDA is still considering defining primal beef cuts that test positive for E. coli as adulterated, according to Dan Engeljohn, deputy assistant administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service's office of policy and programme development.

Currently, testing and enforcement focus largely on meat that will be ground beef.

Englejohn also outlined other policy considerations regarding raw beef, including procedures for using testing data compiled by further processors who implicate a sole-source supplier of product that tests positive for pathogens to help the agency trace the pathogen back to the originating slaughter facility.

He said the agency is also looking at ways to ensure that suppliers and product types are listed in USDA's STEPS database.

USDA is also currently validating methodology for discerning which of the six serogroups of non-O157 Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli (STECS) are present in testing samples.

Engeljohn said the agency is looking at issuing FSIS criteria for assessing prudent high event day determinations. He said while 100 percent testing at large slaughter operations are bound to produce some positives during the day, a large number of positives in a short amount of time are a warning that interventions are not working or workers are not properly implementing the interventions.