48% of Chicken in Small Sample Has E. Coli

[alp227]

Source: NY Times

A recent test of packaged raw chicken products bought at grocery stores across the country found that roughly half of them were contaminated with the bacteria E. coli.

E. coli, which the study said was an indicator of fecal contamination, was found in 48 percent of 120 chicken products bought in 10 major cities by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit group that advocates a vegetarian diet among other things. The study results were released Wednesday.

“Most consumers do not realize that feces are in the chicken products they purchase,” said Dr. Neal D. Barnard, president of the group. “Food labels discuss contamination as if it is simply the presence of bacteria, but people need to know that it means much more than that.”

Food safety specialists said the findings were a tempest in a chicken coop, particularly because the test was so small and the E. coli found was not a kind that threatened public health.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/health/in-small-sample-e-coli-found-in-48-of-chicken-in-stores.html

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I might have heard something about this story on Thom Hartmann earlier today. Thom also used this story to rip on libertarians.

In a libertarian government, you have the right to trust that big corporations will put safety before profit and need to count on the luck of the for-profit insurance industry in case you get sick.

[Gibby]

1. Just read the other day that the USDA wants to let poultry corps inspect themselves

How Republican is that?

[Historic NY]

2. Wash, wash, and then re-wash chick, fruits & vegatables....

“The main thing,” Dr. Cutter said, “is that consumers properly handle a raw chicken and avoid cross contamination as much as possible and cook it thoroughly.”

Unfortunately more often than not it goes from the package to the pot or is left unrefrigerated. I can't tell you how many time I heard people tell me they just cook it w/o washing. More important wash your hands before handling anything else too.

[cliffordu]

3. YES, YES, YES!!!!!

WASH your chicken before cooking, and scrub ANY working surface with HOT SOAPY WATER it comes into contact with before using it for ANYTHING again.

Bleach your cutting board if you can.

Raw chicken juice can make you very sick for a very long time.

[davsand]

4. I treat ALL poultry as if it poses a danger.

Maybe I am just paranoid, but pretty much any commercially processed meat product is a potential carrier for bacteria be it pig, bird, fish, or beef. I use different cutting boards and knives for meats and veggies, and I keep that stuff well isolated in my fridge. If at all possible I try and buy locally produced/processed meats.




Laura

[ag_dude]

5. You aren't paranoid but it’s not just commercially processed meat.

It’s dangerous to think that buying local means food is safe from issues such as E. coli for a multitude of reasons. As much as people complain about the lack of government oversight on commercial operations, the oversight on small local operations is substantially less.

Thinking that buying local relieves you in any way from the threat of E. coli is extremely dangerous. Almost every environmentally sustainable small producer uses animal waste, which is a common source of E. coli, as a fertilizer.

It doesn’t mean the food isn’t safe, it means you have to actually cook your food and follow proper safety and sanitation procedures.

[KurtNYC]

6. Every person reading this has e coli in their bodies

E. coli normally colonizes an infant's gastrointestinal tract within 40 hours of birth, arriving with food or water or with the individuals handling the child.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli

This is junk science with an agenda. Rather than look at HARMFUL e coli outbreaks and their sources, this vegetarian group flipped it over and went looking for scary e coli in meat only. And of course they found it. In stores that tested negative, they retested.

The group did not identify whether the strains they found were harmful ones or not. So while they headline pimps 'e coli' the group backed away from saying that that e coli was a problem and went with the much milder idea that the presence of e coli is an indicator of the presence of fecal matter.

I suggest we look at recent harmful e coli outbreaks and their sources:

- 29 people infected with deadly strain due to raw clover sprouts
- in Europe 50 dead, 3200 inflected due to bean sprouts (other suspects foods were cucumbers, and tomatoes
- in 2006, 3 dead, 205 sick from contaminated spinach

All the same, don't eat raw chicken and wash your vegetables thoroughly. Keep raw and unwashed foods away from ready to eat foods.

"Americans are afraid of food." -Julia Child

[mainer]

7. What about duck? I don't get the "rare duck" dishes in restaurants.

I would think that all poultry should be considered contaminated by salmonella.

The only way to eat duck is with crispy skin and cooked through!