Food Safety Outbreak: E. coli 0157
In January 2010, California-based Huntington Meat Packaging recalled 864,000 pounds of ground beef because of contamination with E. coli 0157. As food writer Michael Pollan noted in 2006, the E. coli 0157 strain of bacteria was at the source of many of the ground beef and spinach recalls in recent years, but it first appeared only in 1982.
This bacteria found a hospitable environment in the rumens of corn-fed feedlot cattle; it could not survive long in the guts of grass-eating cows. Pollan writes that safety plans such as irradiating raw meat and vegetables or overcooking burgers are not a good solution. The better answer would be to raise meat sustainably, on grass, and eat more vegetables raised on small local farms.
Ironically, Pollan writes, food safety measures that focus on technology-based techniques that assume large-scale industrial food raising systems, such as expensive record-keeping and testing requirements, can put small local farmers out of business.
Critics point out that the continual supply of tainted beef is likely to continue as long as the conditions that are conducive to the bacteria remain a routine part of the beef industry.
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Pollan, M. 2006. The Vegetable-Industrial Complex. The New York Times. October 15.
Philpott, T. 2010. USDA Inspector General: meat supply routinely tainted with harmful residues. Grist.com. April 15, accessed August 4, 2010.
