New Test for Meat Bacteria Announced : Health: Agriculture Department says quick scientific procedure would replace ‘see-touch-smell’ method. But some scientists remain skeptical.

The Agriculture Department announced the development of a test Thursday that will allow federal meat inspectors to use science rather than the 87-year-old “see-touch-smell” method for detecting bacteria in meat.

The new test, which comes amid rising concern about the safety of meat and poultry after the deaths last year of four children from E. coli bacteria, permits meat inspectors to determine the bacteria level of meat within five minutes. That is a marked change from the current practice of meat inspectors, who use their sense of smell, touch and sight to assess whether meat in processing plants might be contaminated and merit a laboratory test.

Some scientists, however, have questioned whether the new test is specific enough to be useful. It only registers the “generic bacteria level” rather than detecting whether the bacteria found are harmless or not. If high levels are found, inspectors still must rely on other tests to determine whether the bacteria are harmful.

Critics have suggested that Agriculture Department officials are rushing to use this test for political reasons when other tests may be available soon. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, who has championed the “rapid microbial test” and announced its development in Washington, is under investigation for allegedly accepting improper gratuities.

The new test, which has been in use for two decades in the pharmaceutical and beer industries, would require meat inspectors to run a small sponge dipped in a special solution over selected carcasses at processing plants. The solution from the sponge would then be placed into a hand-held meter that would provide a bacteria reading.

Scientists from the Agriculture Department’s Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Neb., developed the new test in response to an Espy request after the outbreak of contaminated hamburger killed four and made 700 others ill.

“This test is not the end-all, be-all accomplishment for us as we continue to improve and reform the meat and poultry inspection systems,” Espy said. “It represents one of many developments that will help us bring the meat and poultry inspection systems into the next century. As I have said many times before, we can no longer rely on the 1930s methods of inspection in the 1990s.”

Last month a panel organized by the American Gastroenterological Assn. Foundation declared that new strains of bacteria had become a serious health threat and argued that federal meat inspection methods were out of date.

About 400 Americans are known to have died from E. coli infections since the bacteria was first identified in the early 1980s and about 20,000 are infected each year, the panel said.

In an interview earlier this month, Espy accused some of his agency’s employees of behaving as though a certain number of deaths from food poisoning is “inevitable and expected.”

Espy also has said that, when he took over the department, there was a “zero tolerance” standard for fecal material on red meat that was not enforced.

The new test has become part of a fight between Espy and veterans of the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety Inspection Service who are charged with monitoring the meat industry and are the focus of much of Espy’s criticism.

Earlier this month, the Agriculture Department scientist in charge of the Meat Animal Research Center that developed the new test wrote a memo accusing federal food inspectors of trying to block its development.

Members of the food inspectors have called on President Clinton to replace Espy on the grounds that he has lost the confidence of USDA employees.

It could be more than a year before the new test is used by inspectors, since it may take that long to become part of federal regulations.