USDA's Steak E coli Recall Is Useless Without Restaurant Names
In a ground-breaking post that appeared on this web site a full week before the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced a recall of contaminated beef produced by National Steak and Poultry company, we were the first to forewarn the public of a blade-tenderized steak E. coli outbreak related to restaurants.
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The NSP recall December 24th of 248,000 pounds of boneless steaks in connection with a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses in six states is proof of the outbreak, but the government's recall notice is essentially useless since it fails to identify the restaurants at which the adulterated steaks were served. Without confirmation of that crucial information, the millions of consumers who eat steak at U.S. restaurants are left with no practical information about whether they were exposed to this potentially deadly pathogen.
E. coli O157:H7 is an organism that produces a powerful toxin in humans, initially making them sick with extremely painful diarrhea that is often bloody. In more than 5 percent of cases, infections lead to a life-threatening condition known as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which is the leading cause of kidney failure in children. Another disease associated with E. coli O157:H7 is thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP).
To any person of reasonable intelligence, the decision to withhold restaurant names smacks of favoritism: Protecting the “good name” of national restaurant chains at the expense of vulnerable people who eat at them. Our law firm calls upon FSIS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to end their silence on this outbreak and promptly inform the American public of all the names of all the restaurants at which this recalled beef was served.
