The Canadian beef industry got a wake-up call last week when potentially deadly E. coli bacteria were found in a shipment of ground beef from a Canadian plant.
A random sample of the shipment of boxed beef from Lakeside Packers in southern Alberta destined for the United States was checked at the border and tested positive for E. coli 0157-H7.
Although there have been isolated incidents of Canadians getting sick from E. coli, this is the first time the bacteria was found in exported meat since the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service began random testing in 1994.
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“None of these things create confidence and none of these things improve the image of the product,” said Garnet Altwasser, president of Lakeside Packers in Brooks, where the meat originated.
“As an industry it’s a very difficult thing that needs to be dealt with,” said Altwasser, whose company was bought by the giant American food company IBP Inc., three years ago. The 18,000 kilograms of beef are in storage in New Orleans until they can be cooked and made safe.
What’s scary to many people is while Lakeside has the latest high-tech methods to prevent and detect E. coli, there is no guarantee the virulent strain will be eliminated.
“At the end of the day you cannot guarantee the produce is (E. coli) 157 free,” said Altwasser. “There are a lot of things you can do, but on the other hand this isn’t like turning the lights on and off.”
Found in chub pack
The E. coli was found in a course-ground, 10-pound (4.5 kg) chub pack. Between Cargill and Lakeside, Canada’s two largest beef-packing plants, 18 million kg of this form of beef was shipped to the United States last year. The infected lot was 18,000 kg.
Last year, Canada exported 245 million kg of all types of beef to the United States, said Dennis Laycraft, general manager of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
Laycraft said the E. coli contamination was an isolated incident and the cattle group is working with industry and the food service sector to minimize the likelihood of E. coli contamination.
E. coli is a naturally occurring pathogen that lives in the intestines of animals and humans. But one strain, 0157-H7, can cause disease in humans, said Dr. Ian Kirk, associate director of meat and poultry products division with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
There are two main ways E. coli enters the food chain in packing plants. When hides are removed, minute specs of manure, where the E. coli live, can splatter onto the carcass. If the butcher accidentally punctures part of the intestine, E. coli could be transferred from the intestine to the meat.
At Lakeside, as in most large plants in Canada, E. coli tests are taken at the plant. But that doesn’t guarantee the carcass is E. coli free. Tests taken all over the carcass can come up negative while E. coli lives on an untested spot.
“You can never get it down to zero at the present time,” said Kirk, of Ottawa.
The simplest way to guarantee the destruction of E. coli is by cooking hamburger thoroughly.
Well-cooked burgers
E. coli poisoning from meat is a worry with hamburger because the bacteria can be spread throughout the meat.
It’s not a problem in roasts or steak because the bacteria live on the outside of the meat and cooking will kill them.
“I don’t think this incident is any cause for an alarm in the Canadian public’s mind, but it should sound the warning of the importance of thoroughly cooking ground beef,” said Kirk. “This can make the meat totally safe.”
While Canada has not had the E. coli outbreaks that Britain, Japan and the United States have had, where thousands of kilograms of meat were recalled, or children died, this is not the first time E. coli has been found in Canadian hamburger, said Kirk.
“Over the last few years there are a number of isolated situations where people have been ill and E. coli has been pinpointed as the problem.”
Kirk said there is more the food inspection agency can do to prevent a similar problem from happening again. A team of specialists from Ottawa was expected to travel to Lakeside to investigate further.
He doesn’t expect to find any problems with Lakeside’s handling of meat. The plant steams carcasses to reduce the chance of contamination, has a proper handling protocol for the workers and has an in-house testing facility for E. coli.
“We want to give them every assistance we can. I (would) be surprised if it didn’t turn out to be an isolated incident.”
