Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 9/14/11

The USDA’s decision to declare six additional strains of E. coli as “adulterants” was long anticipated in the industry. Still, the practical implications are largely unknown.

“It can be a cumbersome process,” Craig Letch, director of quality assurance for Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based Beef Products Inc., told Meatingplace. Letch said while testing for E. coli O157:H7 can hold up product shipment by four to five days, there have been times testing for the new strains have held product six to seven days, “if in fact you have reactivity.”

BPI announced in mid-July that it was beginning testing for the “big six” non-O157 STECs. Letch notes that the time required for the additional testing is less of an issue for BPI, which markets a frozen product, than it would be for fresh meat processors.

At a news conference on Monday, USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen said turn around time on test results would be the same as current tests for E. coli O157:H7.

Hurdles
The six additional strains that will require testing are serotypes 026, 045, 0103, 0111, 0121 and 0145. However, Letch points out, only certain subsets of those serotypes are considered pathogenic, and the tests used to detect them generally have been more broad.

Furthermore, demand and advancing technology will affect time and costs for processors as well: “We don’t know where all that is going to settle out with the higher volume and as they refine their tests … to combine the O157 with the non-O157 [serotypes] so you have one test doing everything,” Letch says.

Considering options
Among several processors contacted by Meatingplace, only Tyson Foods Inc. issued a statement on the issue. Spokesman Worth Sparkman said, in part, that Tyson “already [has] multiple measures in place to protect the safety of our ground beef that are effective in preventing E. coli O157:H7 and we believe are also effective in preventing other types of enteric pathogens, including the non-O157 forms of STEC.

“Tyson has a comprehensive testing program in place for O157:H7. We’ve been researching various testing systems for the non-O157 STEC and believe such systems will be commercially available by the March 2012 date specified by the USDA.”

Tyson also noted that its research indicates that the program “will be much more costly to implement than the government is projecting.”

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