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Safety Zone By James Marsden
James Marsden is Kansas State University Regent’s Distinguished Prof. of Food Safety.

Strategic E. coli interventions

(The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author.)

Over the past several years, interventions for controlling E. coli O157:H7 and other pathogens in beef products have increased in number and effectiveness.

Despite the availability of improved control measures and the fact that sampled lots are held from commerce until negative results are reported, recalls and cases and outbreaks associated with E. coli continue to occur.

Immediately after the 1993 outbreak that resulted in USDA’s E. coli O157:H7 policy, the emphasis of the beef industry was placed on slaughter interventions. Even today, most interventions are applied during the slaughter process.

This approach has been effective and is largely responsible for the improvements in control that are reflected in USDA’s monitoring of E. coli O157:H7 levels in ground beef. In 2011, USDA testing yielded only 9 positives out of 12, 296 samples (0.07%). The level was up in 2012 – 19 positives in 11, 620 samples (0.16%), but still very low.  Ten years ago, the incidence was several fold higher – in 2001, there were 59 positives in 7010 samples (0.84%). In 2002, USDA reported 55 positives in 7025 samples (0.78%). 

So the beef industry has brought the fight against E. coli into the red zone. The challenge now is to eliminate the problem all together.

I submit that the solution will require additional interventions which must be strategically applied downstream in the process. Here are three possible strategic interventions that I believe would contribute greatly to the solution:

 

  1. Carcass Pasteurization - This will require changes in the carcass chilling process that essentially turn beef coolers into an intervention. It will also require that carcasses be spaced and chilled in the presence of oxidative gases or some other effective intervention that destroys bacteria on carcass surfaces and in the environment. The strategic importance of this intervention is that in theory it could provide a pathogen free carcass for further processing. 

 

  1. Organic acid treatment for beef trimmings – Several organic acids can be used to treat beef trimmings prior to grinding. These include lactic acid and citric acid and organic acid blends. This treatment can be very effective in controlling E. coli O157:H7 and other STEC’s on beef trimmings.

 

  1. Post-organic treatment of trimmings - This would involve an additional intervention stage immediately after the organic acid treatment. Several plants are using a food sanitation tunnel equipped with a UV based intervention that is in line with an organic acid spray. The strategic importance of the combined organic acid and UV based treatments is that in theory, they could provide pathogen free trimmings for ground beef production.

In the end, additional technologies may be required to completely eliminate E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef and other processed beef products. However, the combination of effective slaughter interventions and the three additional steps outlined above would bring the industry to the next level. 

7/15/2013

 
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