Meat Institute Tries To Pass The Buck On E. Coli Testing Of Ground Beef, Gillibrand Says Congress Should Take Action
Gillibrand: Meat Industry Choosing to Ignore Own Best Practices
Washington, DC - In response to a statement from the American Meat Institute that said that the E. coli Eradication Act authored by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand would only "duplicate" testing currently being done by the industry, Senator Gillibrand said that in the absence of corporate responsibility, Congress must act.
"The meat industry makes some valuable points about the need to handle and cook ground beef carefully, but they are choosing to ignore their own best practices. Leading processors in the industry, like Costco, have already determined that they cannot rely on suppliers alone to test the meat. Costco says that testing the meat they receive from slaughterhouses is ‘incumbent upon' them, and I agree.
"The USDA has established proper sampling and testing methods that help ensure safer products. The meat industry would do better by their consumers if they chose to adopt their own best practices and the guidelines from the USDA. However, in the absence of corporate responsibility, Congress should take action."
Earlier this week Senator Gillibrand, the first New York senator to sit on the Senate Agriculture Committee in nearly 40 years, announced a comprehensive plan to overhaul the nation's food safety laws by improving inspection, recall response, and public education. A cornerstone of Senator Gillibrand's plan is new legislation to mandate E. coli inspections of ground beef.
During a 2009 industry-wide sampling of all ground beef produced, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service found that nearly 1 in every 300 samples of ground beef was contaminated with E. coli. Ground beef is especially vulnerable to E. coli because its source material is not from a single cut of meat, rather, from a compilation of trimmings from many parts, including fat that lies near the surface of possibly contaminated hide. While some grinders that process ground beef voluntarily test the meat before and after grinding, there is currently no federal requirement for grinders to test their ingredients for E. coli.
To reduce the risk of E. coli ending up in the hamburgers and other food we eat, Senator Gillibrand is authoring the E. Coli Eradication Act - new legislation that would require all plants that process ground beef to test their products regularly before it is ground and again before it is combined with other beef or ingredients, such as spices, and packaged. If ground beef is found to be contaminated, the bill requires the company to properly dispose of the contaminated batch, or cook the meat to a temperature that destroys the E. coli. Senator Gillibrand's legislation will include appropriate penalties for companies that fail to implement testing mechanisms at their facilities.
For more information on Senator Gillibrand's food safety plans, click here.
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