U.S. to Step Up E. coli Testing in Beef

windows.ucar.edu

I don't eat red meat, but lots of people do. So this is important. Meat and animal poop are big spreaders of E. coli. That's why the USDA will expand testing on meat used to make ground beef.

It's a good idea. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claim an estimated 76 million people in the United States fall ill from food-borne illness each year. 5,000 don't survive. Scary stuff.

It's frightening to me--and maybe this is ethnocentrism speaking--because a food-borne illness sounds like a third-world problem. In developed nations, like the U.S. and others, this should be eradicated, especially DYING from it!

So to stop this, the U.S. Agriculture Department's Food Safety Inspection Service will have meat inspectors test "bench trim" for E. coli. Apparently bench trim is the fat and meat used at meat processing plants.

Similar safety initiatives have been deployed for fruits and vegetables, and the U.S. House of Representatives have passed a bill to give the FDA more power to increase food safety, answering calls to overhaul the system.

I think it's a social responsibility issue too. You don't want your customers getting sick. So go above and beyond to ensure it doesn't happen!

Via Reuters.