Wednesday, July 27, 2011

E.COLI 0157:H7 FOUND IN U.S. BEEF


The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) seems to be having a busy month. Two more meat recalls today. That makes fourteen recalls in July. This time, it is not ready-to-eat products (see my earlier posts of today and of July 19 and 20). Just beef. One of the recalls is because of a finding of that very nasty E.coli 0157 bacteria. The other is due to a finding of dangerous drug residues (the drug is Ivermectin - see next post).

Tri State Beef, a Cincinnati, Ohio, is having to recall some 228,596 pounds of beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. But this E.coli contamination may not be as bad as it sounds since it was sold to other companies in Chicago, Ill., Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, Iowa and Virginia for further processing and distribution.

Reportedly, it was not sold directly to consumers. The meat will undergo cooking before it ever reaches the consumer. Hopefully, such cooking will be done properly so that it will inactivate any bacteria in the meat. Since the facilities are federally inspected, such inspection should make sure that this was the case. Let's hope those inspectors are doing their job!

In sum, this is not expected to be a recall that the consumer has to worry about.

To your good health,
TSF

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have a problem with companies that sell infected beef to another company, hoping that the second company will take the necessary steps to make sure its safe for human consumption. What about some ehtics here!