Profit v. Safety

Since 1994, shortly after four children died from eating Jack in the Box burgers tainted with E. coli 0157:H7, it has been illegal to sell meat “adulterated” with that particular strain of E. coli. Unfortunately, just because it is against the law doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Just ask 22-year-old Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor who fell ill after eating a grilled hamburger at her parents’ house in late 2007. The burger Stephanie ate was a frozen, pre-formed patty made by Cargill (one of America's largest AgriBusinesses) and marketed under the label “American Chef’s Selection Angus Beef Patties.” Which sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Words such as “Chef’s Selection” and “Angus” sound solid and reliable, yet give very little information about the product. You probably know that ground beef is not a single chunk of meat put through a grinder. It is meat from more than one animal, more than one cut of meat, and even more than one slaughterhouse. All of this increases the risk of contamination with a food-borne disease. So why would a company like Cargill make ground beef this way? It is all about the profit.

Let’s take a look at how meat from numerous sources makes its way into ground beef patties. In Cargill’s case, the company bought “beef trimmings” and a “mash-like product” that came from a plant in Wisconsin. The meat in the “mash” came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas, and Uruguay (so much for “American” on the label!) and from a North Dakota company that takes fatty trimmings, grinds them up, and processes them with ammonia to kill the bacteria. There is no requirement that the suppliers of meat trimmings or mash test their products for E. coli or any other contamination. So, after Cargill (and other companies) grinds the meat, trimmings, and mash together to make ground beef they do the testing, right? Well, sort of. The USDA program for food safety inspections, HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points) is actually conducted by the companies who produce the ground beef. The program is designed to be preventative in nature, with companies evaluating the processes it uses and identifying where and how contaminants are likely to enter the food chain.

Companies are encouraged to require suppliers to test their products prior to selling them, but many suppliers are hesitant to do so for fear that word of a contamination would damage business with other companies to whom the grinder sold their products. This just adds to the difficulty with tracing-back the initial source of contamination when there is an outbreak of a food-borne disease. If suppliers were willing to test their products before shipping them to the companies that produce the final product, it would probably reduce the incidence of food-borne disease from the consumption of ground beef. We know what was in the burger Stephanie Smith ate, but it is not clear where the E. coli 0157:H7 which shattered her life entered the food product. Ms. Smith recently reached a settlement with Cargill for an undisclosed sum which includes care for the rest of her life. You have to wonder if Cargill thinks that the 25 percent it saves on every pound of ground beef sold is worth it. I would bet that Stephanie Smith doesn’t think so.