A complicated production process in beef production and a severe lack of testing in the US has made E. coli a great danger to public health, while regulations are slow to come amid industry resistance, according to a New York Times report on Saturday (Oct 3).

 

Meat companies and grocers were barred from selling ground beef tainted by E. coli since 1994 after an outbreak killed four children. However, tens of thousands of people are still sickened annually by E. coli according to official estimates, with hamburger being the biggest culprit.

 

Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the past three years, and this summer, a contamination resulted in the recall of beef from nearly 3,000 grocers in 41 states.

 

Citing records and interviews, the NYT report said hamburger meat is often made from different meat cuts and even from different slaughterhouses. These meat cuts are particularly vulnerable to E. coli contamination, said food experts and officials.

 

Despite so, there is no law requiring grinders to test their ingredients for E. coli.

 

Confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers in question were made from products of different sources, with ingredients from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas, South Dakota and Uruguay.

 

Using a combination of sources -- a practice followed by most large producers of fresh and packaged hamburger -- allowed Cargill to spend about 25-percent less than it would have for cuts of whole meat.

 

Those are meat cuts that are more likely to have come in contact with feces, which carry E. coli, said industry research. But the suppliers are expected to check for the bacteria, with meat companies conducting its own testing only after the ingredients are ground together, said the NYT report.

 

This is not ideal because when E. coli was found in a finished burger, there was no way to find out which ingredient was tainted or where they came from.

 

Yet many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, as they fear the discovery of the pathogen will trigger a recall of ingredients they had sold.

 

Ground beef is not a completely safe product, said Dr. Jeffrey Bender, a food safety expert. Food scientists are also concerned that federal guidance to cook meat thoroughly and to wash up afterward is insufficient, and a test by The Times found that the instructions are not enough to prevent the bacteria from spreading in the kitchen.

 

Within weeks of the Cargill outbreak in 2007, USDA checked 224 meat plants nationwide and found serious problems at 55 plants that failed to follow their own safety plans. Prior to the outbreak, federal inspectors repeatedly found that Cargill had violated its own safety procedures in handling ground beef, but records showed that no fines or sanctions were imposed, the report said.

 

While care was taken to ensure zero contamination, no one was inspecting every single piece of beef trimmings and the safeguards were not foolproof.

 

Also, listed ingredients revealed little of how the meat was made, as the meat product listed only ''Beef''. But the ground beef could have other ingredients added in, including bread crumbs and spices, according to the report.

 

In October 2007, the USDA recommended processors to conduct a few tests a year to verify the testing done by slaughterhouses, but resistance from the industry led the agency to allow suppliers to run the verification checks on their own operations.

 

In August 2008, the USDA issued a draft guideline urging meat processors to test ingredients before grinding, but the industry has been resisting and the guidelines have yet to become official.

 

A federal survey of more than 2,000 plants after the 2007 outbreak showed that half of the grinders did not test their finished ground beef for E. coli, with only six percent testing incoming ingredients at least four times a year.

 

The spate of outbreaks in the last three years has increased pressure on the USDA and the meat processing industry.

 

Dr. Kenneth Petersen, an assistant administrator with the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said the agency 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.