USDA Plan to Ban Non-0157 E.Coli Rebuked by Industry
Food Production Daily is reporting on US plans to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to six strains of E.Coli. The plan is being criticized by the American Meat Institute and the Australian and New Zealand Governments.
The USDA is proposing a rule that would classify E.coli serogroups O26, O103, 0045, 0111, 0121 and 0145 as adulterants, meaning raw ground beef or their precursors containing these six strains would be banned from sale to the public. These six strains of E.Coli are subgroups of Shiga toxin E. Coli (STEC).
The USDA said the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) would begin testing for STEC on March 5, 2012. The docket number for the proposed rule is Docket No. FSIS-2010-0023.
Food Product Daily quoted the president of AMI, James Hodge, as saying the “scientific evidence did not show [the ban] would make beef safer.”
The Australian Government commented on FSIS website stating that STEC other than E.Coli O157:h7 are not considered a major public health risk within Australia. At the time of this writing only 12 comments were posted to the public meeting on the proposed rule.
The CDC explains why STEC may be important to focus in on:
Some kinds of E. coli cause disease by making a toxin called Shiga toxin. The bacteria that make these toxins are called “Shiga toxin-producing” E. coli, or STEC for short. You might hear them called verocytotoxic E. coli (VTEC) or enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC); these all refer generally to the same group of bacteria. The most commonly identified STEC in North America is E. coli O157:H7 (often shortened to E. coli O157 or even just “O157”). When you hear news reports about outbreaks of “E. coli” infections, they are usually talking about E. coli O157.
In addition to E. coli O157, many other kinds (called serogroups) of STEC cause disease. These other kinds are sometimes called “non-O157 STEC.” E. coli serogroups O26, O111, and O103 are the non-O157 serogroups that most often cause illness in people in the United States.
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