Source:  Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 10/13/09

Larry King covered the gamut of the E. coli O157:H7 issue Monday night on his CNN news talk show, "Larry King Live." AMI President J. Patrick Boyle, attorney Bill Marler and chef Anthony Bourdain, along with two nutritionists and several parents of children who had died of complications set off by E. coli contamination, participated in the discussion.

Among the points that Boyle stressed to King's half-million or so viewers was that illnesses related to E. coli O157:H7 are down 60 percent in the last 10 years, and that incidence of E. coli pathogens in beef products has dropped 45 percent in 10 years.

"That's not just a random development, Larry. It's because of investment, technology, research [and] more sophisticated process control," Boyle said.

Elsa Murano, former USDA under secretary for food safety, noted, "[W]hat you have to do is try to eliminate or minimize as much as possible human error, which is really all we can control. … So the meat industry tries to be as careful as it can not to allow that contamination to take place. And it is the USDA's job to verify that they're doing everything possible to prevent that."

The meat industry's best potential weapon, Boyle said, was the use of irradiation. "We need more interventions. … [F]ive years ago, the American Meat Institute petitioned USDA to allow us to use irradiation on the exterior carcasses. Five years later, the department has yet to commence a rulemaking to determine if we can utilize that technology. We need good responses from USDA."

Although USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack did not appear on the program, he provided a statement; read it in its entirety here. (Scroll down to the Vilsack entry.) 

To read the transcript of the discussion in its entirety, click here. 

For more stories, go to www.meatingplace.com.