Restaurants May be Involved in Possible Steak E. coli Outbreak
In the first published epidemiological report on an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with steak products, the authors warned that restaurants should be warned about the increased risk of E. coli infection from undercooked steaks previously tenderized with blades and injections of brine or marinade.
That excellent advice came in 2005 when Minnesota public health investigators wrote about 12 confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7 from non-intact, blade-tenderized frozen steaks that had been sold by door-to-door vendors in Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, North Dakota and Kansas. Three of the victims were hospitalized, including a 52-year-old patient who was treated for 25 days after developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), and was discharged with “residual neurological deficits.”
Four years later and our national food safety law firm, Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, is investigating a possible steak E. coli outbreak associated with at least one large United States restaurant chain. Nothing official has come out as of yet, but we have been contacted by E. coli O157:H7 survivors who may have been infected by meat injected by tenderizing ingredients. The outbreak is believed to have reached multiple states.
These injections and other mechanical tenderizing techniques may enhance flavor but can be dangerous to consumers when brine is contaminated and when meat isn’t cooked well. Even some restaurant cooks may mistakenly believe that all steaks can be safely served rare in the middle. That’s true with intact, untouched steaks because any bacteria is on the surface and is easily killed.
But when steaks are tenderized with brine or mechanical blading, the processes can drive pathogens into the center of the meat, like hamburger. In those cases, an instant-read themometer should be used to ensure proper cooking.
Here’s what the 2005 report said: ” These processing methods create new challenges for prevention of O157 infections. Food regulatory officials should re-evaluate safety issues presented by nonintact steak products, such as microbiologic hazards of processing methods, possible labeling to distinguish intact from non-intact steaks and education of the public and commercial food estabshments on the increased risk associated with undercooked nonintact steaks.”
Timeline for Reporting E coli O157:H7 Cases
When it comes to common source outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 — regardless of whether the vehicle of transmission is ground beef, fresh produce, raw milk or fruit juice — the time from the beginning of the patient’s illness to the confirmation that he or she is part of an outbreak is typically about 2-3 weeks.
This is important when considering case counts in the midst of an outbreak investigation. Public health officials will sometimes announce an outbreak even if there are only one or two confirmed matches between a food source and an illness.
If officials say the investigation is continuing, usually that means the number of confirmed cases in an outbreak will grow because of the lag time between a person consuming the bacteria and health officials positively confirming an outbreak case of E. coli O157:H7 through DNA fingerprinting.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), here’s a breakdown of the timeline and how long each step can take:
- Incubation time: The time from eating the contaminated food to the beginning of symptoms. For E. coli O157, this is typically 3-4 days.
- Time to treatment: The time from the first symptom until the person seeks medical care, when a diarrhea sample is collected for laboratory testing. This time lag may be 1-5 days.
- Time to diagnosis: The time from when a person gives a sample to when E. coli O157 is obtained from it in a laboratory. This may be 1-3 days from the time the sample is received in the laboratory.
- Sample shipping time: The time required to ship the bacteria from the laboratory to the state public health authorities that will perform “DNA fingerprinting”. This may take 0-7 days depending on transportation arrangements within a state and the distance between the clinical laboratory and public health department.
- Time to “DNA fingerprinting”: The time required for the state public health authorities to perform “DNA fingerprinting” on the E. coli O157 and compare it with the outbreak pattern. Ideally this can be accomplished in 1 day. However, many public health laboratories have limited staff and space, and experience multiple emergencies at the same time. Thus, the process may take 1-4 days.
CDC, States Still Investigating E coli Outbreak
There has been a dropoff in the number of newly confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7 in relation to the Fairbank Farms ground beef E. coli outbreak, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is properly concerned that people will continue to fall victim to this dangerous episode of contamination.
That’s because an unknown quantity of the more than half-million pounds of beef products recalled by Fairbank Farms on October 31 is still lurking in freezers of consumers. Therefore, the investigation into this outbreak by the CDC and several state health departments is continuing and CDC has issued advice to consumers.
So far there has been a cluster of 26 people from eight states infected with the outbreak strains of E. coli O157:H7. One of the victims is a 5-year-old boy from Auburn, Maine, who was hospitalized for three weeks with E. coli HUS after eating ground beef tainted with E. coli O157:H7. His illness has been affirmatively matched to the outbreak. This young victim is represented by our national food safety firm, Pritzker Olsen Attorneys.
In my opinion, the needless suffering of all the people sickened so far in this outbreak only serves to underscore the need for more stringent testing in the meat industry. We can only hope that all consumers who purchased the contaminated ground beef produced by Fairbank Farms and sold through various retailers recognize the danger before they, too, suffer the consequences of lax testing and oversight.
The outbreak is centered in the Northeast, including the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and New York. The CDC is urging consumers to check their refrigerators and freezers for beef products produced by this firm and purchased on or after September 15, 2009. The meat has establishment number EST 492 stamped in the USDA mark of inspection, with product date codes of 091409, 091509 and 091609.
According to the most recent CDC snapshot of the outbreak — taken on November 20 — the latest reported illness began November 6. Here is the CDC’s chart of when the illnesses began. But, remember, the time from the beginning of the patient’s illness to the confirmation that he or she was part of an outbreak is typically about 2-3 weeks. Case counts in the midst of an outbreak investigation must be interpreted within this context.
More Vaccine in Works To Stop Hamburger E. coli
A Minnesota company made headlines earlier this year by winning conditional license to market a vaccine to reduce the prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 in beef cattle.
Now a graduate student at the University of Saskatchewan is said to have created a vaccine to reduce other types of Shiga-toxin producing E. coli bacteria, or non-0157 STECs. Though E. coli O157 is the most prevalent STEC bacteria in North America, others are more dominant around the world. In Europe, O26 is the most common. In South America, it is O111. And there have been outbreaks involving 026 and 0111 in the United States.
The breakthrough by student microbiologist David Asper, which the University of Saskatchewan says is soon to be published, still must withstand three to five years of intensive testing in mice and cattle. And further more, like the vaccine already being sold for E. coli O157:H7 by Epitopix LLC, it must gain market acceptance by cattle ranchers to do any good for humans.
But it is somewhat heartening to families who have experienced severe illness or death from E. coli ground beef outbreaks that science continues to work on solutions. Hamburger E. coli outbreaks invariably bring cases of STEC infection that lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening disease that can cause renal failure, strokes, brain damage, spinal cord injury, heart problems and hemorrhaging. Children under 5 are the most susceptible and persons over 60 are most likely to die from the poison.
Asper’s vaccine would work by preventing non-O157 STEC organisms from attaching to the intestines of cattle. The bacteria commonly live in the hind guts of cattle without doing them harm. They can contaminate meat during the slaughtering process, when the intestines are nicked or when feces compacted on the animals’ hides spreads to carcasses. The microbes get ground into the meat during the making of hamburger and can survive in the core of the patty if the internal cooking temperature of the hamburger doesn’t reach 160 degrees.
In the U.S., E. coli O157:H7 is banned from ground beef, making it an adulterant. But in one of the many safety gaps that exist in our food safety system, no such classification is given to non-O157:H7 STECs.
Due to improved detection methods, cases of non-O157 E. coli infection are on the rise, increasing the importance of having the second-generation vaccine. “We can protect humans by vaccinating animals before they come in contact with the pathogen. I think that’s very important work that will lead to a lot fewer infections,” Asper said in The Star Phoenix newspaper.
E. coli HUS: How it Gets Made Into Hamburger
A New York Times report on ground beef E. coli outbreak dangers associated with industrial level hamburger grinding is still gaining attention around the country, including on the floor of the U.S. House and the office of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Vilsack said the Times report by Michael Moss, which focused on a 2007 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to Cargill hamburger patties, is boosting his department’s effort to fight E. coli.
Especially in children, cancer patients and older adults, the pathogen can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), an attack on red blood cells that can result in kidney failure, heart problems, strokes, brain damage and spinal cord injury. One of the victims of the Cargill ground beef E. coli outbreak was a young dance instructor who suffered paralysis after contracting E. coli HUS.
E. coli O157:H7 was banned from ground beef in 1994, but grinding plants aren’t required to test incoming beef trim and scrap that is used to make ground beef. In fact, as the Times story showed, some big slaughterhouses won’t sell meat to grinders if the plants test the shipments for E. coli. That’s because a positive result would likely mandate a multi-customer recall of the supplier’s meat.
U.S. Representative Louise M. Slaughter, D- New York, and chairwoman of the Rules Committee, read parts of The New York Times article on the House floor this week and said the lingering pathogens in meat and the industry’s use of antibiotics were threatening to harm exports of beef to Europe. Rep. Slaughter is a microbiologist.
“We’ve got to get people to understand what’s going on here,” she said.
One of the big moments in the story was Costco’s food safety director saying industry giant Tyson wouldn’t sell beef trim to Costco’s grinding operation because Costco’s policy is to test incoming shipments. Tyson did not respond to the statement directly.
A follow-up story in the Times said Costco has reached an agreement with Tyson that allows Costco to test the trimmings before they are mixed with those from other suppliers.
The food safety officer at American Foodservice, which grinds 365 million pounds of hamburger a year, said it stopped testing trimmings a decade ago because of resistance from slaughterhouses. “They would not sell to us,” said Timothy P. Biela, the officer. “If I test and it’s positive, I put them in a regulatory situation. So we don’t do that.”
Dr. Kenneth Petersen, an assistant administrator with the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), told the Times that his agency could mandate testing, but that it needed to consider the impact on companies as well as consumers.
“I have to look at the entire industry, not just what is best for public health,” Dr. Petersen said.
In damage-control mode after Peterson’s comment was aired in the Times story, Vilsack said in his prepared statement that public health and food safety was USDA’s priority. But he didn’t address whether USDA would consider mandating E. coli tests of ingredients that arrive at grinding plants.
The Times story was an important national story because it showed that eating ground beef is still a gamble. There have been 16 ground beef E. coli outbreaks in the past three years. In the Cargill E. coli hamburger outbreak of 2007, the company recalled 845,000 pounds of ground beef produced at its plant in Butler, Wisconsin, after people began to fall ill.
The “Angus Beef Patties” found to be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 were really made with cheap, fatty beef trim, scrap and other cheap beef ingredients that came from multiple slaughterhouses, one as far away as Uruguay. The Times story went back and traced where the ingredients came from, noting that Cargill used beef parts most likely to come in contact with E. coli during the slaughter process.
Click here to see the original Times story.
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