New Rules on Precooked Meat Proposed

WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department, concerned about mounting evidence showing that disease-causing bacteria remain in precooked meat patties, proposed guidelines Friday for how to prepare and label such food products.

The proposed rules will be open for public comment until Jan. 27.

“There has been increasing evidence over the past several years that food-borne pathogens survive in products that many consumers erroneously consider to be fully cooked, such as ‘Char-Broiled Beef Patties’ and ‘Pre-browned Fresh Pork Sausuage Patties,”’ said Lester Crawford, administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service.

“As these types of convenience products continue to become more popular, we must establish requirements to reduce the potential for food-borne illness,” he said.

The proposed rules would establish requirements on storage of raw ingredients, processing times and temperature, handling to prevent contamination after processing and labels that include cooking instructions for final preparation.

For instance, partially cooked meat patties would bear the statement, “For Safety, Cook Until Well Done (Internal Meat Temperature of 160 F).” The statement would appear next to the product name.

Recently, an outbreak of food poisoning was linked to a strain of bacteria that hospitalized six Minnesota schoolchildren with severe diarrhea and cramps. The Centers for Disease Control determined that undercooked beef patties caused the illness, but the bacteria strain infecting the children has not been isolated from the patties.