Regulating the Meat Industry

On Monday The New York Times reported that the federal government will ban the sale of ground beef tainted with six toxic strains of E. coli bacteria. These relatively rare forms of E. coli will now be treated the same as the more common strain, called E. coli O157:H7.

During a Tuesday press conference, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that the government is banning these less common strains because they can be just as dangerous as O157:H7. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that E. coli strains other than O157:H7 cause nearly 113,000 illnesses each year.

Not surprisingly, the meat industry isn't pleased. The NY Times reports:

"But the American Meat Institute, an industry group, has argued that safety measures already in place are sufficient. On Monday, the group was highly critical of the extended ban.

'Imposing this new regulatory program on ground beef will cost tens of millions of federal and industry dollars -- costs that likely will be borne by taxpayers and consumers,' the group said in a statement. 'It is neither likely to yield a significant public health benefit nor is it good public policy.'"

Their argument basically boils down to it's not worth spending the money. That might gain some traction in this economy, but I doubt they can do anything about these regulations (when the U.S.D.A. banned the O157:H7 form from ground beef in 1994, the meat industry sued but ultimately lost in court).

It's good to see our government working to make our food supply safer, but it's still disturbing that these strains of E. coli have become so pervasive that bans are required. Maybe this new ban, which goes into effect in March, will prompt meat corporations to improve their practices; but given the patchwork nature of food safety regulation I doubt that will be the case.