About 20 people across the nation became ill last month with diarrhea and abdominal cramps after eating bacteria-contaminated meat that had been processed by Hudson Foods Inc.
Although Hudson quickly recalled the contaminated meat — 25 million pounds — from supermarkets and fast food outlets around the country, the problem didn’t end there.
Experts and the American public are wondering this: With some of the best food safety standards in the world, why did the contamination occur?
Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. Enforcing safety standards in food production is a monumental task for the federal government. It simply doesn’t have the resources to put inspectors in every meat-processing plant or slaughterhouse. And if it does find contaminated food, it doesn’t have the power to order the responsible company to recall it.
For example, with the Hudson Food fiasco, the U.S. Department of Agriculture – which monitors the meat and poultry industries – couldn’t order Hudson to recall its bad meat. (Fortunately, the company acted on its own. For the most part, the USDA relies on the industries it monitors to test their own products and police themselves.)
Congress has routinely denied recall power to the federal government, confident that the various food industries could monitor themselves. This incident may change their minds. It has certainly made Americans less confident: A Newsweek poll found that a majority of Americans think the government should do more to safeguard our food supply. And 54 percent say they’re less likely to buy hamburger at fast-food restaurants. (About one-quarter of Burger King restaurants bought their meat from Hudson before the contamination incident. After the scare, BK stopped buying Hudson beef.)
The truth is that no matter what we do, we’ll never be able to prevent every bacterium or parasite from getting into our food supply. Every time we move to defeat them, they adapt and come back stronger.
Take E. coli, for example. It’s normally a harmless bacterium found in the intestines of humans and cows. But the strain that can cause vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps and even death is deceptive because it causes no symptoms in cows. So it’s almost impossible to detect.
When an infected cow is slaughtered for hamburger, no one knows the difference (unless a meat-processing company randomly tests a sample and discovers the bacteria, an exercise that’s much like finding a needle in a haystack).
Undetected bacteria can easily slip into beef – in a microscopic piece of intestine or feces, for example – as it is ground. (Because the bacteria is in feces, it can also end up in fertilizer, which can contaminate fruits and vegetables treated with it.)
Some scientists claim that using low levels of radiation to kill bacteria on food products would solve some problems. While proponents say irradiation has been proven safe and effective, critics say using radiation to treat foods may be harmful to the environment – and to humans.
Many experts say that in the long run the consumer can best prevent food poisoning. Because heat kills many dangerous food bacteria, it’s important to cook beef and poultry until no pink shows and to look for products that have been pasteurized, or heat-treated. (News flash: Some meat processors are beginning to pasteurize their meat. Also, last week, the Food and Drug Administration asked U.S. juice makers to label unpasteurized products.)
It’s also important to wash your hands and kitchen surfaces after handling raw meat and poultry. And it can’t hurt to do the same with fruits and vegetables.
