RESEARCH MAKES FOOD SUPPLY SAFER, IMPROVES INDUSTRY IMAGE

DENVER (November 30, 1999) -- Consumers want assurances that their food is safe.  At the same time, scientists say bacteria is everywhere, so 100 percent safe food can`t be guaranteed.

Can the beef industry achieve consumer goals while believing the scientists?  It can, and is taking steps to improve food safety and assure consumers that the beef they eat is indeed safe -- if prepared properly. 

Many of the beef safety improvements implemented by the industry are a result of investments by beef producers and their $1 per-head beef checkoff.  The research funded through the checkoff has provided packers, processors and marketers with methods of identifying contamination access points and ways to address it should it occur.

As a result, this past year Colorado State University (CSU) researchers determined that packing plants that apply a strategy of multiple intervention steps — sometimes called food-safety hurdles — can effectively decrease carcass contamination by 99.9 percent. 

Referring to multiple hurdle strategies, CSU professor Gary Smith, Ph.D., wrote:  “Add to dehairing (still being refined) other interventions like minimizing airborne contamination, pre-evisceration carcass washing and rinsing with an acetic-acid solution, final carcass washing with 165 degree water and spray-chilling of carcasses with intermittent release of solutions of chlorine dioxide and the odds of ever encountering a foodborne pathogen on beef carcasses can be made...practically...zero.”

Rather than replacing one intervention step with another, packers have embraced the multiple-hurdle strategy knowing that the effects of these procedures are additive.  The more hurdles bacteria encounter, the less likely they are to be present when consumers use the product.

Because of this checkoff-funded research, the nation’s beef supply has become much safer since 1993.  That year a highly publicized outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 put food safety in the spotlight.  Since then the industry has invested more than $8 million in food-safety research.  But more importantly, the findings from this work are used daily in packing plants, at a significant cost to packers.  A steam pasteurization unit costs $1.6 million; a steam-vacuuming unit costs $50,000.  Plus there are added labor costs. 

According to one estimate, more than 80 percent of the food-safety research projects producers have funded with checkoff dollars have led to procedures that increased beef safety.  That`s a much better record than most research conducted at universities and companies, who usually expect an implementation rate of about 20 percent.

Work on the actual pathogen hurdles began in 1991, when a four-year study on the effectiveness of organic acid rinses began.  Three years later, more than 25 interventions were evaluated for effectiveness in reducing pathogens.  That research led to several processes that were later adopted by the industry.

In 1995, hot water or steam vacuuming proved to be an effective step in killing bacteria.  This process was quickly put into packing plants and today more than 90 percent of U.S. fed cattle carcasses are treated this way. 

In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration approved irradiation treatment for red meat products.  The United States Department of Agriculture/Food Safety Inspection Service still must publish the final rules regarding irradiation use, a step that is expected before the close of 1999. 

Already, a facility in Sioux City, Iowa, is ready to irradiate ground beef products in a test project for the big three packers and other processors.  The Cloverleaf Facility doesn’t use any radioactive material to treat the product, but relies on two electron beams to kill the bacteria.  

Also in 1997, another effective hurdle was added – the pre-evisceration wash.  This helps eliminate particles that might remain after the hide has been removed and stops the bacteria from attaching to carcasses.

Many of these technology advances were made after researchers learned more about E. coli O157:H7 and other bacteria.  One of the first things done following the 1993 E. coli outbreak was to establish a nationwide standardize testing procedures for the pathogen. 

A 1996 study called Microbial Mapping I identified points where microbes can enter the beef chain during different points in the processing system.  This research helped underscore the need for a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points Plan, which NCBA supported.  By the end of January, every packing plant in the country must have a HACCP plan in place.  HACCP is a procedure that helps processors guard against bacterial contamination.

In 1998, researchers looked at the source of raw products fed into the ground beef supply, and the likelihood of contamination from each source.

Research into each of these interventions was funded in part by checkoff dollars.  "We`re pleased with the success in our food safety efforts," says Van Amundson, a beef producer from Jamestown, N.D., and chairman of the beef industry`s Beef Safety Committee.  "Combined with our work to educate and inform consumers about their role in food safety, we think it`s provided important steps leading to both a stronger industry image and a safer food supply."

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Food safety programs are funded by the national beef checkoff, which is administered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board (Beef Board).  This 111-member board is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the Federal Order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.

Under a contract with the Beef Board, this beef checkoff-funded effort is conducted by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a trade association of America’s cattle ranchers and farmers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.  NCBA is producer-directed but consumer-focused, with offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C.