U.S Finds Listeria in Raw Beef

A laboratory analysis of raw beef by federal researchers found that 5% of the red meat sampled contained Listeria monocytogenes, a potentially fatal bacterium, according to a top U.S. Department of Agriculture official.

The pathogen was extracted from 319 randomly selected pieces of beef in January and then December, 1987, and the original findings were reconfirmed.

“You cannot take comfort in these contamination percentage figures,” Lester Crawford, administrator of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, told a meat industry gathering here recently.

The survey’s results, and related issues, were discussed by Crawford and others during two days of seminars at the Western States Meat Assn.’s annual convention at the Wyndam Hotel.

The disclosure of L. monocytogenes in beef surfaces after the poultry industry was tainted by a similar federal study in 1987 which found that as much as 37% of the broilers entering retail channels contain salmonella, another harmful bacterium.

The various strains of Listeria, which initially produces flu-like symptoms and fever, are responsible for 1,600 deaths annually in the United States, according to federal statistics. Groups with weakened immune systems, such as infants, pregnant women, cancer patients and the elderly, are particularly susceptible to the bacteria. And the fatality rates for those who contract the illness, known as Listeriosis, are about 20%, Crawford said.

The largest such outbreak occurred in Los Angeles in April, 1985, when more than three dozen people, mostly infants who died from the pathogen believed to have been present in Jalisco-brand Mexican-style soft cheese, according to Los Angeles County Health officials.

The procedure that identified L. monocytogenes in the most recent federal study was developed only within the last year, Crawford said. As such, no comparable results are available to determine whether Listeria levels in beef are stable or on the upswing.

But the surprising findings are likely to heighten criticism of federal health officials, who are under increasing pressure from both Congress and consumer groups to reduce bacterial contamination in the nation’s food supply.

Crawford, who became the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s administrator last October, acknowledged as much when he said that, for quite some time, federal regulatory officials thought that bacterial problems in the food supply would just “go away.”

“We have not had a very good record in the federal government of dealing with bacterial risk,” he said. “There is a national outrage (over food safety problems) on the part of the people who pay our salary and who buy meats products.”

Some of the federal government’s problems stem from the lack of sensitive testing equipment and research data on the contamination threat.

“We once found ourselves testifying in Congress (about one strain of bacteria in food) using data from World War I,” he said.

Crawford, however, is not panicked over Listeria’s confirmed presence in raw beef. USDA’s long-standing policy has been to avoid establishing standards for contaminants in raw meats if the products will ultimately be cooked before human consumption. And heat, in the case of beef, is sufficient to destroy L. monocytogenes organisms.

Another reason for calm, he said, is that medical researchers estimate that 5% of the American public internally hosts some strain of Listeria bacteria; most without any outward signs of illness. The identical contamination levels in humans and beef could mean that poor sanitation and handling practices are the primary sources of the pathogen rather than the cattle.

Even so, Crawford predicts the present policy on raw meats is likely to change in light of the public’s growing awareness of contamination issues.

“The public’s confidence has declined; there’s no doubt about it. And if it declines for any one form of meat then it also declines in the others,” he said. “The USDA has maintained that if a meat is cooked, then the public shouldn’t be concerned about bacteria’s presence in a product’s raw stages. But the public is saying that they want something more than that; they want microbiological standards.”

One likely remedy is for the meat industry to adopt a program similar to those in place for milk producers. Raw milk, scheduled for pasteurization, is tested for the total number of bacteria present. If this figure, or plate count, exceeds federal standards then the milk is rejected.

In the meantime, the two agencies responsible for the nation’s food supply--the USDA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration--have jointly formed a commission to study and recommend ways of addressing microbial threats, Crawford said. In fact, the newly created National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods marks one of the few times these two territorially protective departments have coordinated on policy formation to this extent.

Another interim measure is being taken by the Food Safety and Inspection Service which has already intensified its review of processed meat products. Crawford said that the service issued its first major recall for Listeria- contaminated corned beef last November. Similar recalls in the future are anticipated.

Of course, Listeria is not the only pathogen worrying both the meat industry and the regulatory agencies. In addition to Listeria, the federal researchers also found that 1.2% of the beef sampled in the recent study contained salmonella, another harmful organism. The salmonella levels in beef, though, were far below those believed to exist in chicken.

Salmonella Cited

As this type of data continues to emerge, Congress, for one, may not be willing to wait for the regulatory agencies to act.

The House of Representatives has already passed a resolution, sponsored by Rep. Neal Smith (D.-Iowa), that would require poultry manufacturers to condemn those birds contaminated with feces from intestines ruptured during processing--a defect thought to be a major source of salmonella.

Crawford sees no immediate end to this or other contamination controversies.

“The public debate on this issue will continue and it will be heightened,” he said.