Did You Know?
Food Safety Labs & ISO Accreditation
Federal and state food safety labs moved toward acceptance of accreditation at a workshop held in conjunction with the recent Association of Food and Drug Officials meeting in San Antonio, Texas. On June 4, 1999, the National Integrated Food Safety Laboratory Workgroup chaired by Bill Krueger, of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, approved a vision statement endorsing ISO 17025, a proposed international accreditation standard expected to receive final approval in September. The statement reportedly signifies a major shift in attitude by government laboratories. “The question is no longer whether to move toward accreditation, but how,” a workshop participant is quoted as saying.
Egg-Yolk Antibodies for Pigs
Before feed additive distributor John Hare heard University of Manitoba animal scientist Ron Marquart describe during a Winnipeg, Alberta, animal nutrition conference, how he made egg-yolk antibodies, no one had thought of using the process to aide in the raising of livestock. Now the pair allegedly plans to combine forces to develop designer eggs which can be fed to early-weaned piglets in order to help the animals avoid succumbing to organisms like E. coli, which inhibits weight gain and can sometimes prove fatal. The pair hope to parlay their idea into a $500 million-a-year enterprise.
Will Irradiated Beef Pass the Taste Test?
Experts at a recently held food safety symposium sponsored by the National Food Processors Association warned that irradiated beef, due to be test marketed in the U.S. by the end of 1999, may fail to live up to the taste expectations of the general public. Noting that “irradiation causes chemical change—that’s why it works,” George Pauli, director of product policy at the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, cautioned that to make irradiated meat tasty enough for astronauts, NASA had to experiment with a variety of approaches, finally settling on partially cooked meat, which was then frozen before irradiation, in order to get the best results.
Pat Adams, an executive with SteriGenics International, Inc, the medical equipment company that initially petitioned the federal government for permission to irradiate meat, added that the thickness of meat, the amount of liquid or fat it contains, and whether it is chilled, frozen or at room temperature, can all affect irradiated meat’s flavor.
What does the public have to say? According to International Food Information Council spokesman Robert Earle, consumers surveyed about irradiated meat by his organization in 1998 said they were interested in safer meat, and that flavor was more important to them than price.
Keeping Meat Fresh Longer
Researchers at the University of Manitoba claim to have devised a new refrigerated storage and transfer system for fresh meat—one which maintains an environment prohibitive to bacterial growth—that can allegedly prolong the shelf life of packaged meats for up to 28 days. U. M. Biosystems Engineering Professor Digvar Jayas, of the project development team, claims the new system would increase efficiency in the meat industry by centralizing processing and eliminating the need to cut and wrap at the retail level. The system works by having the processor cut the meat to retail-ready cuts, which are then wrapped in a series of specialized, air-tight films. The trays are then injected with carbon dioxide prior to transport.
E. Coli Linked to Spontaneous Abortions
Minnesota Medical Research Foundation gynecologist Dr. Anil Kaul was recently cited as telling the general meeting of the American Society for Microbiology that a strain of E. coli O157 normally found in the stomach and intestines of sick individuals, was found in the urinary tract of a 31-year-old patient who suffered a spontaneous abortion in the 22nd week of pregnancy. “If E. coli O157 (the virulent strain) is now entering a new environment—the genital tract,” Kaul warned his audience, “we may be seeing the beginning of a very serious public health threat to pregnancy.”