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Script: E. Coli O157:H7 In Ground Beef |
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Intro:
Welcome to USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service podcast. Each episode
will bring you cutting edge news and information about how FSIS is working to ensure public
health protection through food safety. While we’re on the job, you can rest assured that
your meat, poultry, and processed egg products are safe, wholesome, properly labeled,
and packaged correctly. So turn up your volume and listen in.
Host:
Welcome. I am Alexandra Tarrant with the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Joining me
again is Dr. Denise Eblen, branch chief in the Risk Assessment Division. This week we’re
going to discuss the risk assessment work FSIS has done on E. coli O157:H7 in
beef.
Guest:
Hello again.
Host:
Now – a lot of people may have heard of the link between undercooked ground beef and illness.
Will you explain a bit more about this?
Guest:
Well, when people first started making the link between E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks and
food, in the 1990s, many of these were linked to eating undercooked raw ground beef.
Thankfully E. coli O157 is fairly rare, but it can cause long-term illnesses
and even deaths in susceptible people. The official statistics – and these are from a
1999 CDC paper state an estimated 62,000 cases of E. coli O157:H7 infections
occur every year from food, with about 1,800 hospitalizations and 52 deaths. CDC FoodNet
reported an incidence of 1.12 illnesses per 100,000 population in 2008.
Host:
And E. coli O157:H7 is considered an adulterant in raw ground beef, right? Isn’t
this unusual, considering cooking should remove the bacteria and make the meat safe to
eat?
Guest:
Yes, FSIS declared E. coli O157:H7 an adulterant in 1994, following a very large
outbreak linked to undercooked hamburgers that led to more than 700 illnesses and 4 deaths.
Calling food contaminated with E. coli O157 adulterated was a big step – this
means that if it’s found in raw ground beef, that beef cannot be sold for human consumption.
This was an unprecedented move, for the reasons you state – people don’t usually eat raw
ground beef, and yes, cooking to the recommended temperature will kill any E. coli
O157:H7 present.
The thing is though, a lot of people eat undercooked ground beef – they like their burgers
pink in the middle. And it only takes a few cells, 10 or less bacteria, to make some people
sick. This was recognized as a very significant issue at the time, and it continues to
be a big focus for FSIS.
Host:
So the Agency decided a risk assessment was needed? What did the risk assessment find?
Guest:
Back in the mid-90s there were a lot of unknowns about this organism. So we examined the
relevant risk factors and assessed an individual’s chance of getting sick, so that we
could provide concrete information for the policy-makers in the Agency.
What we found was that a “typical” individual’s annual risk of illness from E. coli
O157:H7 in ground beef is between 1 in 600 million servings and 1 in 400 billion servings.
But within the general U.S. population, children under the age of 5 have 2.5 times higher
risk.
Also - there is a seasonal change associated with the risk of E. coli O157:H7
illnesses. From April to September, there is a 3 times higher risk of E. coli
O157:H7 illnesses.
And, as expected, we found that thoroughly cooking ground beef products greatly reduces
the risk of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses.
Host:
What other activities related to E. coli O157:H7 is FSIS working on?
Guest:
We’re working on a risk assessment of the comparative risk of intact and non-intact beef
– comparing things like steaks and roasts to ground products like ground beef and patties.
Another project we’re working on will look at the risks associated with specific practices
at beef slaughter and processing establishments.
We’re also involved in the development of sampling programs that focus on the riskiest
product when we’re testing for E. coli O157 in beef establishments.
As with all risk assessment activities, we work very closely with policy-makers to make
sure we are providing information that will help them develop sound policies, and with
risk communicators to make sure they understand the scope and limitations of the information
we’re providing.
Host:
Well, we’re out of time again – but thanks for coming in, Denise.
And as always, listeners can visit our Website at www.fsis.usda.gov
for more information on FSIS risk assessments as well as links to the reports and studies
mentioned.
If you have comments about any of our podcasts, please email them to
podcast@fsis.usda.gov. Thanks for listening.
Outro:
Well, that’s all for this episode. We’d like your feedback on our podcast. Or if you
have ideas for future podcasts, send us an e-mail at
podcast@fsis.usda.gov. To learn more about food safety, try our web site at
www.fsis.usda.gov. Thanks for tuning
in.
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Last Modified: September 16, 2009 |
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