This March, America’s food supply is slated to get a tiny bit safer — a change the meat industry is vehemently opposing.
At issue is the USDA’s plan to require U.S. slaughterhouses to expand their E. coli tests. Currently, meat companies must test for just one E. coli strain: O157:H7.
Continue Reading The 'Big Six' Are a Big Problem Worth Solving
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is extending the comment period for the rule declaring six Shiga toxin-producing E. coli adulterants in certain beef products, according to the American Meat Institute.
AMI reported receiving a letter from FSIS Administrator Alfred Almanza with the news on Wednesday.
The new deadline…
Continue Reading FSIS Extends Comment Period on the 'Big Six'
Under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s soon-to-be-implemented policy on non-O157 E. coli, confirmed positives for O157 and the so-called “Big 6” strains of non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) will be 5 to 10 times higher than currently for O157 alone, Dr. Mohammed Koohmaraie predicted before a recent meat industry…
Continue Reading 'Big Six' E. Coli Policy: More Positives, Expert Predicts
At the meat industry’s recent E. coli conference in Chicago, the USDA’s decision to ban six more strains of toxic E. coli, in addition to O157, was much-anticipated and even specifically predicted.
But like in the old E.F. Hutton television commercials, when Kansas State University’s James Marsden talked about it…
Continue Reading Marsden: Beef Industry Can Handle the Change
CHICAGO — The pathogenic Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia Coli (pSTEC) serotypes known collectively as the “Big Six” will soon be banned from U.S. meat, a top expert told a meat industry conference Thursday.
Action to declare the six non-O157:H7 serotypes as adulterants in meat could come as early as next week…
Continue Reading Meat Industry Told to Brace for 'Big Six' Listing
