An argument for pasteurization
By: James Marsden
(The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author.)
At the recent meeting of the Beef Industry Food Safety Council (BIFSCo), Dr. David Smith, a professor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Nebraska presented a history of the events that led to the 1924 Standard Milk Ordinance and the systematic pasteurization of raw milk. There many analogies to the public health issues associated with raw milk and the problem of E. coli O157:H7 in beef that we face today.
The major public health problem associated with raw milk that led to the Standard Milk Ordinance was Tuberculosis (TB). Tuberculosis was a major problem in the US in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is still one of the top three infectious diseases in the world along with AIDS/HIV and malaria. It affects one third of the world’s population and is responsible for over 2 million deaths every year. Most of today’s problems with tuberculosis are in developing countries.
After it was discovered that people could be infected with TB from raw milk, the federal government initiated a testing program to eradicate the problem in cattle and in 1924, passed the Standard Milk Ordinance. The programs to control TB were successful.
The solution to the TB problem in cattle involved pre-harvest interventions, testing and the systematic pasteurization of raw milk. The solution to the problem of E. coli O157:H7 in beef will involve the same basic components.
The issue of consumer responsibility and proper cooking seems to continually dominate this blog. Of course, ground beef needs to be properly cooked in order to eliminate E. coli O157:H7. I suppose that if consumers cooked raw milk, it could also be made safe to drink. However, the real solution in beef, as it was in raw milk, has to be to eliminate the problem of E. coli O157:H7 before it ever reaches the consumer.
I submit that a combination of effective pre-harvest interventions, combined with validated antimicrobial technologies applied at slaughter and carcass pasteurization and microbiological testing (for process verification) would lay the foundation for E. coli O157:H7 free beef products.
There would still be a need for excellent sanitation, prevention of contamination from environmental sources and processing interventions. The pasteurization of packaged consumer products using irradiation or high hydrostatic pressure may also eventually play a role in the overall process. In order for this approach to be successful, it would have to be universally applied, in the same manner as the systematic pasteurization of milk was required almost 100 years ago.
I am sure that in the early 1900’s, the problem of TB in raw milk seemed insolvable. Yet it was solved. The objective of producing pathogen free raw ground beef products will also be difficult to say the least. The beef industry really has no choice but to succeed.
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