To Prevent E. coli in Ground Beef Treat the Cow
.jpg)
An article by Elizabeth Weise for USA Today posed the question, “Who should pay to make ground beef safe from E. coli?" The article discusses two products, an E. coli vaccine and probiotics, that have made it possible to almost eliminate E. coli in ground beef. Even though consumers are willing to pay extra for safer beef, ranchers are not eager to pay for the products because they have to be used months or years before the cows can be sold, according to the article:
It's hard to figure out who should pay for steps that would take place months and possibly years before the grill starts sizzling. The people who'd have to pay for them aren't the ones who would reap the direct benefits.
Researchers at Harvard University estimate that American beef consumers are willing to pay 1 cent to 2 cents a pound to reduce the risk of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses. "Common sense plus our paper and many others suggest consumers will pay more for safer food," says James Hammitt, who co-wrote a paper on consumer willingness to pay for food safety in the September edition of the journal Risk Analysis.
These interventions aren't perfect, but they're very good, says Guy Loneragan, a professor of food safety at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. "The question is no longer, 'Can we get the technologies?' We've got them, or they're soon to arrive. The question is 'How do we implement?' "
The vaccine is a Pfizer product. According to Pfizer:
Escherichia Coli Bacterial Extract vaccine with SRP technology has been shown to reduce the number of cattle testing positive for the bacteria by 85 percent. And those animals still testing positive show a 98 percent reduction in concentration of E. coli O157.
Pfizer acquired global rights to the vaccine from Epitopix LLC after Epitopix was given a conditional license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to sell its vaccine in 2009.
Probiotics for cattle have been around longer than the vaccine. A number of companies sell probiotic products that can be mixed with feed to maintain intestinal health and aid digestion. These products first hit the market in 2002. Here is an excerpt from an article in beefmagazine.com dated October 1, 2002:
A new feed ingredient that contains probiotics or “good bacteria” can reduce the presence of E. coli 0157:H7 in live cattle by as much as 50%, according to researchers at Texas Tech University.
Feet have been dragging long enough. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and state agriculture departments need to work together to get this done immediately. We have had clients who suffered renal failure, had colostomies and had central nervous system damage, all because they ate beef contaminated with E. coli. To have a solution to this problem and not implement it is unacceptable.
Nancy Donley, the founder of STOP Foodborne Illness, told USA Today:
Consumers are happy to pay for additional safety, Donley says. "We need to do something at the source" before cattle go to slaughter, she says. "This is something we've been crying for for ages."
To read the USA Today article in full, click here.
