A3O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 18, 2000
From the Department off Dairy and Animal Science
This regular column from Penn State’s Department of Dairy and
Animal Science features the research findings, student opportunities, and
resports on other important topics generated in the Department. The
back issues of the column are archived on Lancaster Fanning’s
Internet www.lancasterfarming.com home page. Look for them.
Are Producers Responsible
for Food Safety?
William R. Henning
Extension Meat Scientist
Penn State
The past few years have been
filled with news stories about the
safety of our food supply.
Recently, the safety of livestock
and livestock management
practices have been questioned by
some food safety experts. In
attempting to prevent food borne
illness caused by meat and
poultry, the Food Satetv
Inspection Service (FSIS) of the
United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) has
implemented a program called
HACCP, an acronym for Hazard
Analysis and Critical Control
Points.
HACCP is designed to
eliminate, control or reduce to an
“acceptable level’" any food safety
risk, including pathogens The
program is designed to help
processors, packers and
distributors establish preventative
and control methods at all
“critical” points in the handling
and processing of meat and
poultry products and to keep
records to prove these procedures
are being followed. First
implemented in January of 1998
by the largest processors, final
implementation will be
accomplished by January 2000 by
the “very small” processors.
In addition to the HACCP
program, FSIS inspectors have
significantly increased sampling
for Salmonella and E. coh
0157.H7 on carcasses and in fresh
retail ground beef Regulations
are currently being formulated for
testing programs for Listeria in
cooked meat and poultry
products There is no doubt that
intensified inspection has helped
identify problem areas and
improve process methods, but the
industry has recently experienced
more recalls for pathogens than
ever.
Why so many recalls?
Processing plants and regulators
have increased the sampling rate
to the point where it is assured
that some pathogens will be
found. Secondly, the testing
procedures are much more
sensitive. New methods allow the
recovery and detection of
pathogens much more efficiently
than just a few years ago.
Does this mean that food,
especially meat and poultry, is
less sate than before? Not at all!
It means that the industry and
government regulators are raising
the awareness of all processors
and handlers of foods, including
consumers.
The USDA plans to
incorporate a "FARM TO
TABLE" approach to food safety
in addition to many of the
traditional inspection methods.
This “Pre-Harvest” component
will place more responsibility on
the individual producer for food
safety, but no one has clearly
defined the control methods.
As an industry, the livestock
and poultry sectors have done an
excellent job over the past few
decades to prevent diseased,
unwholesome meat or chemically
contaminated meat from entering
the food chain, but this is not
enough to satisfy some consumers
or regulatory officials.
One aspect that remains
somewhat conti oversial is the role
animal production practices play
in food safety. Some FSIS
spokespersons are suggesting that
animal production should be part
of a slaughter plant’s HACCP
plan, yet no clear answers are
available of how this will be
accomplished.
There seem to be two separate
issues that may or may not be
controlled at the farm; pathogens
and residues.
To understand how producers
can have a role, it is important to
understand how pathogens get
into meat.
• Environmental pathogens,
which cause disease m humans,
abound widely in the
environment, especially in the
soil.
• Pathogens which cause
disease in humans do not usually
exhibit any visible effects m the
animal which may be infected
(the exception is a rare
Salmonella called DTIO4)
• Infected animals do not have
infected meat! When meat
becomes infected, it is generally
due to the transfer of pathogens
from the hide or hair of the
animal to the surface of the
carcass during processing (mainly
hide removal). Pathogens can
also come from the intestinal
content of infected animals but
this is generally well controlled in
packing plants.
• Extremely dirty animals can
increase contamination of the
carcass, although the effect is not
as large as once thought.
• Animals that are not
internally infected with these
pathogens can get infected
manure on their hide during the
marketing process from dirty
trucks and pens at sale barns or
packing plants. They can even
get pathogen-infected manure on
their hide by being shipped on the
same truck with an infected
animal.
FSIS has considered
attempting to control pathogens at
the farm level but there are no
clear answers of how this might
be done. Some research is being
done with vaccines and even
mnoculants of bacteria that
compete against pathogenic E.
coli. Those methods show
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promise but do not prevent
contamination by the manure of
untreated journal animals
during marketing. Although
reported m one scientific and the
popular press, several subsequent
research trials showed that
feeding hay to cattle prior to
slaughter DOES NOT reduce the
incidence of pathogenic E. coh in
cattle but, in fact, may increase
shedding of the bacteria into the
manure.
Meat packers have been very
aggressive in attempting various
procedures to control pathogens.
Such techniques have involved
washing, shaving, sterilizing and
even dehairing beef carcasses
prior to removing the hide.
Currently, the National
Cattlemen’s Beef Association
(NCBA) is funding research on
dehairing of beef cattle prior to
removing the hide. This process
involves application of a caustic
(much like “Nair”) to remove all
the hair. The caustic also kills
pathogens on the surface of the
hide and provides a relatively
sterile environment during hide
removal.
Packing plants have also
developed several “hurdles” to
reduce the number of pathogens
on the carcass after processing,
including improved procedures in
dressing, mild acid rinses, hot
water washes and steam
“pasteurization cabinets”. Each
of these procedures make small
reductions of pathogens and can
be additive in their effect. This is
what the industry calls “Multiple
Hurdle” techniques to improve
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