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In light of this weekends recall by Cargill Meat Solutions of approximately 8,500 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O26, and the sickening of three people, it is time for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to deem another six “enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) Shiga toxin-producing serotypes of Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains – O26, O45, O111, O121, O145, and O103 – “adulterants.”

Non-O157.jpgNon-E. coli O157:H7 EHEC as “Adulterants.”

According to the CDC, E. coli O157:H7 causes 73,000 illnesses and 50 deaths every year in the United States. Another six E. coli strains – O26, O45, O111, O121, O145, and O103 – are considered less pervasive, sickening “only” an estimated 37,000 people a year and killing nearly 30. E. coli O157:H7 is considered an adulterant in beef by the USDA (particularly ground beef), the other six strains are not.

Under 21 U.S.C. § 601 … (m), the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA), the term “adulterated:”

shall apply to any carcass, part thereof, meat or meat food product under one or more of the following circumstances: (1) if it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render it injurious to health; but in case the substance is not an added substance, such article shall not be considered adulterated under this clause if the quantity of such substance in or on such article does not ordinarily render it injurious to health; …

It is hard to read the above and not think that the word “adulterated” does not apply to all E. coli. Presently, industry does not test for it because the USDA and FSIS does not require it – because they are not considered “adulterants.” In addition, only five percent of labs in the U.S. routinely test for these other E. coli leaving a gap in our food safety network and the true level of illness unknown.

Non-E. coli O157:H7 EHEC have been found in ground beef.Continue Reading Non – E. coli O157:H7 EHEC (O26, O45, O111, O121, O145, and O103) should be “Adulterants”

The other morning when I was prepping in another studio to talk with another cable channel about yet another food crisis—this time the recall of a half of a billion Salmonella-tainted eggs that had already sickened at least 1,400—I was asked by a young producer, “Attorney Marler, if you had a magic wand, what would you do to make food safer?”

My first thought (to myself) was, “How the hell do I know, I’m just an ambulance chasing barracuda looking to destroy some poor helpless food manufacturing corporation that just poisoned a bunch of people, cost retail chains hundreds of millions of dollars in recall costs, and damaged its entire sector’s image and sales?”

But then I thought some more. I thought about my nearly eighteen years spent dismantling those helpless corporations to secure medical expenses and lost wages for clients whose lives were destroyed, or ended, because they did something we all do about three times a day: they ate food. I thought about the ICU’s I had been in and witnessed the panic in a parent’s eye as a doctor coldly explained the need for kidney dialysis, or the reasons to stop life support because their child’s brain had stopped functioning. I thought about the heroic struggles in rehab as a brain-injured client learned to brush her hair and teeth, or learn to walk again as the family looked hopefully on. I thought about the fear that these families have as they wonder how they will cope with a disabled future without the resources to pay for it.

And, then I thought, “Give me the damn wand!”Continue Reading What if I had a food safety magic wand?

With 550,000,000 eggs being recalled from 18 states and the number of ill flirting with 2,000, we understandably are not only focusing on the “how did it happen?” but, also “how this could have been prevented?”

good:badeggs.jpgState Ag and Federal (USDA/FSIS and FDA) authorities seem to be going out of their way to let us know that no one was inspecting the “hen houses” linked to this recall and outbreak – or any other hen houses for that matter.  We are being assured that if the “Egg Rule” (which was debated for decades) had been in place in May (when the outbreak began) and not July (when the outbreak was nearly over) this whole mess would not have occurred.  Really?  Here is a summary of the Rule:

• Buy chicks and young hens only from suppliers who monitor for Salmonella bacteria

• Establish rodent, pest control, and biosecurity measures to prevent spread of bacteria throughout the farm by people and equipment

• Conduct testing in the poultry house for Salmonella Enteritidis. If the tests find the bacterium, a representative sample of the eggs must be tested over an eight-week time period (four tests at two-week intervals); if any of the four egg tests is positive, the producer must further process the eggs to destroy the bacteria, or divert the eggs to a non-food use

• Clean and disinfect poultry houses that have tested positive for Salmonella Enteritidis

• Refrigerate eggs at 45 degrees F during storage and transportation no later than 36 hours after the eggs are laid (this requirement also applies to egg producers whose eggs receive a treatment, such as pasteurization).

• Environmental Testing for SE. There are specific requirements on when and how to test for SE and coordination with pullet testing.

• Egg Testing for SE. Whenever you have reason to know/suspect of presence of SE. Two week intervals in positive poultry houses.

It seems to me that the above are both common sense and minimum requirements for producing eggs – especially when you are producing them from millions of chickens for the consuming public..  Furthermore, how is the FDA going to inspect these plants when it does not now have the manpower to inspect the thousands of other food manufacturing plants it is supposed to inspect now?

Perhaps looking back across “the pond” might give us a way out of this scramble.Continue Reading We could learn something from Jolly Old England – About Salmonella

Friends and enemies say that I have a less than eclectic reading style – I will read most anything that has my name in it. So, although I may well have been attracted by my name in lights (or at least in the article), I stayed for the smack down delivered on one Mr. Austin “Jack” DeCoster (a.k.a., the bad egg) delivered by crack Ag reporters Chuck Jolley and Dan Murphy. Chuck Jolley is a free-lance writer, based in Kansas City, who covers a wide range of Ag industry topics for Cattlenetwork.com and Agnetwork.com. Dan Murphy is a veteran food-industry journalist and commentator. Both took Jack to task for both his less than stellar past and an outbreak and recall that will cripple the Egg Industry for some time.

Here are their stories – and, thanks Chuck and Dan for the off-hand compliments:Continue Reading The Ag Industry Fries One of Its Own

In between being interviewed by FOX New York, Seattle and Los Angeles and being taped for the Today story for tomorrow, and doing several other radio and TV interviews – one by Skype and preparing for the Larry King Show in an hour, I had the chance to finish up my slides for a speech…

As I said to the Associate Press yesterday – “The history of ignoring the law makes the sickening of 1,300 and the forced recall of 550 million eggs shockingly understandable.” I was talking about the owner of the largest egg farm at the center of this massive recall and outbreak of Salmonella Enteriditis. As the AP found the owner, Austin “Jack” DeCoster, is no stranger to controversy in his food and farm operations:Continue Reading Salmonella Egg Fiasco – House and Senate Agriculture and FDA Oversight Committees should hold joint hearings