New Law Blogs

New Testing Policy for Beef Trim

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced that it will begin a new type of follow-up testing at establishments that supply trim and other components of raw ground beef. According to the FSIS:

FSIS will conduct the new follow-up testing in response to positive E. coli O157:H7 findings in receiving establishments’ testing programs (including results from laboratories with which the establishments have contracted). FSIS is developing this new program in response to the increased positive findings for E. coli O157:H7 and the increase in recalls associated with E. coli O157:H7 in 2007.

. . . To assess how much follow-up testing FSIS may need to conduct under this new policy, inspection program personnel are to collect information from receiving establishments’ testing programs about E. coli O157:H7 positive or presumptive positive test results for incoming raw ground beef products, beef manufacturing trimmings, and other raw ground beef or beef patty components. Inspection program personnel are to collect information on test results for such product that the receiving establishment did not co-mingle or further process before collecting the sample. The Agency is looking for results that reflect product from a single supplier that has not been further processed.

. . . For purposes of this notice, a test is considered presumptive positive when microbiological analysis indicates the strong possibility that E. coli O157:H7 is present, but additional steps are needed to confirm the presence or absence of the organism.

An E. coli outbreak in Ohio and Michigan has been associated with ground beef.  A recall of meat by Dutch's Meat, a New Jersey firm, may be a key to finding the source of the Ohio and Michigan outbreak.  Dutch's Meat recalled over 13,000 pounds of ground beef because routine testing found E. coli contamination.  The recalled meat was not distributed in Ohio or Michigan, according to Dutch's Meat, but the supplier of the ground beef components (beef trim, etc) used by Dutch's Meat may have distributed contaminated components (beef trim, etc) to another processor that did distribute ground beef to Ohio and Michigan. Stated another way, the possible scenario, according to Dutch's Meat, is that one supplier of beef trim and other beef products used to make ground beef distributed contaminated beef products (beef trim, etc) to Dutch's Meat and one or more other companies that grind beef products into ground beef. 

Because contaminated ground beef is usually caused by contaminated beef products used to make the ground beef, additional testing of these ground beef components (beef trim, etc) is a step in the right direction.

If you have been sickened by E. coli, an E. coli lawyer can help you recover money damages.  To contact a lawyer at our law firm that has extensive E. coli litigation experience, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll-free), email Fred Pritzker or submit our free case consultation form.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on June 23, 2008 (boomark / email).