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The Failure of Nebraska Beef to Promptly Deal With Contaminated Beef

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

Now that the health investigators have associated Nebraska Beef, Ltd. with the Ohio and Michigan E. coli outbreak that has sickened at least 43 people, they are looking at this outbreak as evidence that our food safety system that does not go far enough to protect consumers.

The Columbus Dispatch has conveniently drawn up a timeline of events in the outbreak:

June 9

• Nebraska Beef gets the first word from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that samples of meat from processing companies tested positive for E. coli. According to a company spokesman, that notice said Nebraska Beef was among a group of firms suspected to have supplied the product.

June 11

• Central Ohio health officials express concern over six reports of E. coli O157:H7 infections in Franklin and Fairfield counties in one week. The cases followed the death in late May of a Gahanna woman who was infected with the bacteria.

June 16

• Columbus Public Health declares an E. coli outbreak as reports of new cases accumulate and emergency rooms see a spike in visits from patients with gastrointestinal problems.

In central Ohio, the E. coli count jumps to 11.

June 17

• Nebraska Beef gets another notice about contaminated meat.

June 23

• The Ohio Department of Agriculture laboratory confirms a ground-beef sample from a sickened resident is contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

June 24

• Michigan Health officials say many of the sickened people ate ground beef from Kroger. The grocer's Columbus division confirms that its meat was consumed by at least one of the people infected in central Ohio.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declare a multistate outbreak.

June 25

• Ohio health officials genetically match bacteria found in ground beef sold at a Gahanna Kroger to 33 DNA-linked illnesses, 17 in Ohio and 16 in Michigan.
• Kroger recalls an undetermined amount of ground beef with sell-by dates from May 21 through June 8.

June 27

• USDA issues Nebraska Beef a notice of intended enforcement, a warning that the agency issues to companies that need to make changes. In this notice, the department's Food Safety and Inspection Service cited an inability to control E. coli O157:H7.

June 30

• Nebraska Beef recalls 531,707 pounds of meat used to make ground beef. The meat was sent to companies in seven states.
• The first Ohio product-liability lawsuit is filed in Franklin County by a New Albany woman who was sickened by E. coli bacteria.

July 3

• Nebraska Beef expands recall to 5.3 million pounds of meat.
• The Nebraska Beef recall prompts Kroger to expand its recall to include company-owned stores throughout the country with sell-by dates as late as July 5.

When Kroger ground beef was confirmed as a source of the Ohio and Michigan E. coli O157:H7 outbreak on July 25, Nebraska Beef knew that they supplied ground beef components to Kroger, knew that some of their ground beef components were testing positive for E. coli O157:H7, and still chose to do nothing until June 30, when the company issued its initial recall (later expanded to 5 million pounds of beef).

Arguably, Nebraska Beef's failure to quickly act on knowledge of contamination resulted in more people being sickened in Michigan and Ohio.  An E. coli outbreak in  Georgia (E. coli outbreak linked to the Barbecue Pit) has also been linked to Nebraska Beef.

Nebraska Beef's delayed response during this outbreak has prompted the Ohio Department of Agriculture to make a change in its policies.  the Ohio Department of Agriculture will no longer wait for agencies or companies to make an announcement about tainted products that the department finds.  The department will now only wait three hours (or until 4 pm) for agencies or companies to notify the public of the results before the department releases the information itself.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on July 14, 2008 (boomark / email).