U.S. Issues Hamburger Cooking Warning

Reacting to a food-poisoning outbreak that has caused hundreds of illnesses and two deaths in three Western states, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned states that all ground beef should be thoroughly cooked, just as if it were contaminated with dangerous bacteria.

The agency advised states to raise the minimum cooking temperature of ground beef to 155 degrees Fahrenheit from the former federal recommendation of 140. Washington state, where 250 cases of illness and two deaths occurred, already requires 155 degrees.

The statements came in two memos issued by the FDA’s acting director of the retail food protection branch and distributed this week.

In another development, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy Friday defended the agency’s meat inspections and blamed undercooking for the outbreak of poisoning caused by the E. coli 0157:H7 bacterium, which has sickened people in Seattle, Las Vegas and San Diego and killed two children in Seattle.

Many of the cases have been traced to undercooked hamburgers at Jack in the Box restaurants.

At his first press conference, Espy said in Washington that he would travel to Washington state Tuesday to meet with Gov. Mike Lowry and testify before the state Senate about the outbreak.

The beef is thought to have been contaminated during slaughter, apparently when it came in contact with fecal matter. Thorough cooking kills the bacteria.

Espy called the bacteria “rare.”

Dr. Jill Hollingsworth, assistant to the administrator of the federal food inspection service, said Friday that the ground beef had been traced to a warehouse in Tukwila, Wash., owned by the distributor, Foodmaker Inc., and back to a processing plant, Von’s Cos. of El Monte, Calif. But the department has been unable to trace the beef further back than that, she said.

Jack in the Box said the tainted meat went to Washington, Idaho, California, Nevada, Hawaii, Hong Kong and Mexico.

Hollingsworth and Espy both urged consumers to cook raw meat thoroughly.

E . coli are a group of generally harmless bacteria found in the intestines of humans and animals. However, when eaten, certain strains of E. coli can cause illnesses ranging from cramps to bloody diarrhea. In severe cases, the infection can lead to kidney failure and death. Children and the elderly are at special risk.

So far in the state of Washington, health officials have tallied 250 cases. A 2-year-old boy died last week, and a second child, a 2 1/2-year-old girl, died Thursday. The first child had eaten at Jack in the Box; the second had not.

Outbreaks of E. coli poisoning also have occurred recently in San Diego and Las Vegas. In Nevada, officials said, most of the 175 cases of unusual intestinal disease reported in the last month could be attributed to E. coli , and 100 of them were traced to Jack in the Box.