Health & Welfare | Daily Report

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the recall yesterday of more than 430 tons – yes, tons – of ground beef from a Los Angeles-area meat-packing company, warning that the meat may be contaminated with E. Coli bacteria.

The USDA says that the potentially tainted products were produced at the Huntington Meat Packing plant in Montebello between Jan. 5 and 15 and shipped to restaurants, hotels and distribution centers within California. 

The recall notice describes the packaging of the beef and how to protect yourself and family from falling ill (although tips don't apply to dining out, unless one is bold enough to pop into the kitchen with a meat thermometer). More, too, at Foodsafety.gov.

And thanks to intrepid investigative reporters from the New York Times and USA Today, many questions we might ask about this kind of scare have been answered. The answers may not instantly ease fears, but they certainly give the public and policy makers a framework for thinking about this apparently growing problem of tainted beef.

• So E. Coli can make us sick if we don’t cook our meat to 160 degrees. How sick?

The New York Times tackled this one in an article spotlighting Stephanie Smith, a woman who fell ill and was paralyzed after eating E. Coli-tainted beef: 

The vast majority of E. coli illnesses resolve themselves without complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Five percent to 10 percent develop into a condition called hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can affect kidney function. While most patients recover, in the worst cases, like Ms. Smith’s, the toxin in E. coli O157:H7 penetrates the colon wall, damaging blood vessels and causing clots that can lead to seizures.

• How does E. Coli bacteria get into beef?

Again, this one is tackled in the same New York Times article. Apparently ground-beef makers are using cuts of cows from far-flung places, and taking meat from parts of the cow that are prone to exposure to feces, which contain E. Coli. The Times writes about one batch of beef scraps ground up in a Wisconsin plant by Cargill, a large ground beef maker:

The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria. 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.

• Seems that lots of beef in the grocery store has a USDA stamp of approval. Are those officials doing their jobs?

The New York Times articles on the topic point to several breakdowns in the meat inspection process. One is simple human error. Inspectors don’t catch every instance when meat can come in contact with feces, which includes skinning the cow and gutting it. Also, some companies apparently seek to go undetected in an often-long supply chain to avoid scrutiny:

Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies.

And in another report that focuses on Beef Products Inc., the Times reports that the company pioneered a unique ammonia-gas infusion to kill bacteria in meat. Although that company hasn’t been tied to an outbreak of E. Coli, the U.S. government gave it unique powers:

Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture endorsed the company’s ammonia treatment, and have said it destroys E. coli “to an undetectable level.” They decided it was so effective that in 2007, when the department began routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public, they exempted Beef Products.

The USDA revoked that exemption after the Times presented officials with evidence of the company's troubles with the school lunch program.

• School lunches, you say. Is the beef served in my kid's cafeteria safe?

Reporters at USA Today explored that question in an investigation into Beef Packers Inc., of Fresno. It's a major supplier for the school lunch program. Some key findings:

Government documents show the company failed to meet program requirements more than 40 times and had more than 1 million pounds of its ground beef rejected because of salmonella contamination during the 2003-04 school year.

In the following years, the company was suspended from the school lunch program three times – twice in 2007 and once in 2008. Two of those suspensions came after the company repeatedly failed to produce ground beef that was free of salmonella, USA TODAY found.

Those suspensions lasted just a few days, until the company showed the government that it fixed its problems. Even so, during the past three years, the company failed to meet requirements more often than all but one other ground beef supplier.