On paper at least, several safety nets keep bad beef from reaching consumers. Inspectors
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) work full-time in beef slaughterhouses,
inspecting cattle and carcasses for visible signs of illness or contamination. To deal with
invisible threats, USDA inspectors regularly conduct random tests for E. coli
O157:H7 and Salmonella bacteria on samples of beef.
Since 1998, the federal government has required all beef-processing plants to create
a food-safety plan called HACCP (pronounced HASS-up). The initials stand for
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, and the plan must spell out where contamination
might occur, then build in processes and equipment to prevent it. In many plants, especially
the largest, the HACCP plan includes in-house bacterial tests that supplement
those the USDA conducts.
Do these procedures ensure clean, fresh beef? The industry says yes, and the numbers,
for Salmonella at least, lend some support. While 6.4 percent of
ground-beef samples tested by the USDA harbored Salmonella in 1998, only 2.8 percent
did in 2001. "Our slaughter facilities are approaching a better-than-hospital
sanitation standard," says James Hodges, president of the AMI Foundation, the research
subsidiary of the American Meat Institute, a national meat-packers' trade organization.
ConAgra's web site describes a "multiple hurdle food safety intervention system" that
includes steam-vacuuming, washing, and acid-rinsing carcasses. The company says these
measures eliminate 99.99999 percent of disease-causing bacteria. Clearly, however, they
didn't kill enough E.coli to keep ConAgra out of the news last summer.
In our tests, two of 198 samples of ground beef had high levels of E.coli, fecal
bacteria that live in the intestinal tract of all warm-blooded animals and can contaminate
beef during slaughter. It's important to not that we tested for the presence of generic
E.coli, not specifically the rare but potentially deadly O157:H7, and we can't
say which types of E.coli were in our samples. Though unappealing, a few fecal
bacteria in your burger won't necessarily hurt you; most varieties are harmless. But
high levels of even the harmless E.coli may indicate an increased risk of pathogens
that cause food poisoning.
And it doesn't take much of the harmful type to have an effect: Those who are susceptible
can get sick from ingesting as few as 10 E.coli O157:H7 bacteria. The most common
symptom is severe, bloody diarrhea, but some people---especially children, the elderly,
and those with compromised immune systems---are vulnerable to a life-threatening complication
known as homolytic-uremic syndrome. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), O157:H7 kills an estimated 60 people nationwide every year and sickens 73,000.
"E.coli O157:H7 is among the most frightening of the foodborne pathogens because
once you're sick and the toxin is released in your system, it's essentially untreatable with
antibiotics," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science
in the Public Interest, a consumer-advocacy group.
The USDA has tested ground beef for E.coli O157:H7 since 1994. Most years, it
tests 5,000 to 7,000 samples from plants and stores where meat is ground. In the first
year of testing, not a single sample tested positive. In 2001, slightly fewer that 1 percent
of samples did. Given that about 28 percent of cattle arrive at slaughterhouses with
E.coli O157:H7 stuck to their hides or hooves, a system that eventually produces
a positive rate of less than 1 percent sounds impressive.
Even more reassuring are statements by government and industry that once a sample of beef
is found to be contaminated, all ground beef from that day's production is quarantined or
recalled from the market. However, the USDA lacks the authority to mandate recalls, which
are voluntary and conducted by manufacturers. And in practice, the recall process has not
always worked well. During the recent E.coli O157:H7 outbreak, people were falling
ill for at least two weeks before ConAgra's Greeley, Colorado facility issued the first
recall. It waited another 19 days before issuing an expanded recall of 19 million pounds
of ground beef produced over nearly three months' time. Very little of the "recalled" beef
came back because so much time had elapsed between production and recall.
"This recall shows a systematic breakdown of the USDA regulatory program designed to control
the deadly E.coli bacteria," DeWaal says. "Clearly, it needs significant redesign."
The General Accounting Office (GAO) agrees. In a draft report made available in July, the GAO
documented major problems in federal oversight of processing-plant HACCP plans. The report
cited cases in which USDA inspectors hadn't checked whether a plant had identified safety
hazards, let alone corrected them. The GAO also found that some inspectors had allowed
hazards to remain for months without insisting on corrective action. The most common
such "repetitive" violation: visible fecal contamination.
The USDA's job may have been made harder by a 2001 court decision prohibiting
the agency from withdrawing inspectors from a plant solely because the plant failed
Salmonella tests. (Withdrawing inspectors effectively closes a plant, since it's
illegal to sell uninspected beef.) Test failures can still trigger a review of a plant's
HACCP system, however.
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