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The US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Oregon Department of Human Services have issued a safety alert yesterday warning consumers that ground beef sold in Northwest food stores might have been tainted by the lethal E.coli bug. This beef is thought to have sickened nine people in Washington and Oregon.
The beef in question was sold during July and August and has sell-by dates of August 1 and August 11. It was processed by Interstate Meat Dist., Inc. based in Clackamas, Oregon.
Escherichia coli or (E. coli) is a bacterium normally found in the gut of human beings. Under normal circumstances, the bacteria play an important role in waste processing, vitamin K production, and food absorption from the large intestine.
However the E. coli strain O157:H7 is associated with a host of illnesses in man. Prime among these diseases are food poisoning, urinary tract infections, peritonitis, meningitis and septicemia.
The O157:H7 strain of E.coli was linked to the outbreak caused by fresh bagged spinach in late 2006. In the very young and the very old, E.coli can prove to be a fatal infection. E.coli is also found in raw and undercooked beef, infected water and milk.
Symptoms of E.coli infection include bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Most E.coli infections are linked to consuming undercooked, contaminated ground beef, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Consumers can prevent E. coli O157:H7 infection by cooking ground beef thoroughly and by avoiding drinking unpasteurized milk. Additionally washing hands carefully before preparing or eating food is also advised.
In this particular case, the tainted beef, thought to be 41,205 pounds in quantity, was sold in Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Idaho. It was sold in QFC, Fred Meyer, and Safeway stores in the area.
The two suspected products carry the establishment code "Est 965" inside the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture mark and are as follows:
* "Northwest Finest" brand Natural Ground Beef, 7 per cent fat having a red and black label. It bears a universal product code (UPC) of 7 52907 60012 7.
* "Northwest Finest" brand Organic Ground Beef, 10 per cent fat having a green and black label, but no UPC code.
Dr. William E. Keene, a senior epidemiologist at the Oregon Public Health Division's communicable disease section advised consumers to throw away suspected beef. "If you have any low-fat hamburger in your freezer, check the label for the brand name and the "sell by" date. If it meets the description, be safe and throw it out," he added.
Six persons were infected in Washington and two had to be hospitalized, while the others were sickened in Oregon. "Our investigation revealed that these households had purchased ground beef from the same source at grocery stores in Oregon and Washington," Keene said.
In April an E.coli outbreak forced federal officials to recall 100,000 pounds of frozen ground beef patties in five US states. California, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington were the states where the tainted beef was sold. the recall was initiated after five children fell ill in Napa county.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has the following guidelines to prevent E.coli infection,
* Cook all ground beef and hamburger thoroughly
* If you are served an undercooked hamburger or other ground beef product in a restaurant, send it back for further cooking.
* Wash fruits and vegetables under running water, especially those that will not be cooked.
* Make sure that persons with diarrhea, especially children, wash their hands carefully with soap after bowel movements to reduce the risk of spreading infection.
Following simple guidelines can prevent E.coli infections. However in this case officials have asked consumers to throw away beef as it is past the sell-by dates.
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