It's good meat

In spite of painstaking efforts on the part of both the beef industry and the US government, bacteria such as E. coli 0157:H7 continue to escape the packing plant via microscopic traces of fecal contamination.

What has been missing from packers' quality-control arsenal is an accurate way to detect these traces - and to do so quickly, long before the meat has made its way to distributors, restaurants and retail outlets around the country.

Now there's reason for optimism: With help from eMerge Interactive, researchers from Iowa State University and the USDA's Agricultural Research Service have developed a real-time optical instrument capable of detecting even minute traces of fecal contamination both before and after the carcasses have been subjected to an array of pathogen interventions.

The device provides also provides workers with detailed roadmaps of contaminated areas that must be removed from freshly harvested carcasses, as well as of contamination-free areas that can be spared.

eMerge holds the exclusive license for this patented technology, and is responsible for commercialising it. By late summer of 2001, a prototype had been thoroughly tested on whole carcasses at Oklahoma State University and the University of Florida, and eMerge had begun discussions with major packers to finalise the system's specifications.

The commercial application of this Fecal Detection System will then begin in selected packing plants, paving the way for broad-scale compliance with USDA 'zero tolerance' standards for fecal contamination.

In years to come, its applications may expand beyond packing plants to food retailers, restaurants, hospitals, day-care centres, and other environments where food-borne pathogens can threaten customers.