The CDC estimates that "non-O157 STECs (like O26, O45, 0103, O111, O121, and O145) cause 36,700 illnesses, 1,100 hospitalizations and 30 deaths in America each year.” And, with the outbreak of E. coli O26 in Cargill hamburger that was announced last weekend, I frankly fail to see what more needs to be said to convince the USDA and FSIS to label these bugs as adulterants.

It is time for the USDA and FSIS to respond to my "Petition for an Interpretive Rule Declaring all enterohemorrhagic Shiga Toxin-producing Serotypes of Escherichia coli (E. coli), Including Non-0157 Serotypes, to be Adulterants Within the Meaning of 21 U.S.C. § 601(m)(1)" (See attached, Petition Supplemental) that I mailed today.