Settlement in E. Coli Case, and the Need For More Testing

A federal judge approved a settlement on Tuesday in the lawsuit between Cargill, Inc. and Stephanie Smith, a Minnesota woman who was permanently injured after consuming a hamburger infected with E. coli O157:H7. Smith became famous to the world through a New York Times article by Micheal Moss that later won a Pulitzer Prize.

Smith, a former children's dance instructor, is left paralyzed with cognitive problems and kidney damage — all because she ate a hamburger. As Bill Marler, her attorney and a food safety advocate writes on his blog, "A settlement, yes, and a door closing, but a life forever changed." Settlements such as this are ostensibly incentive for companies not to poison their customers, but more needs to be done to prevent this from continuing to happen in the future.

The AP recently published an excellent article describing the need for expanded testing of E. coli strains. As the article explains, "The food industry and government regulators have focused for years on finding the most virulent strain of E. coli bacteria, which every year sickens thousands. But they don't regularly test for six less common E. coli strains that can cause illnesses equally as serious."

Food safety advocates, including Bill Marler, are petitioning government regulators to implement widespread testing for other strains of E. coli in meat. Hundreds of strains can be found in the intestines of cattle and can get into the food supply, but many don't cause illness, or those that do are mild enough that people infected don't know it came from their food. As the article explains, "The food industry screens for the most prevalent strain, O157:H7, which belongs to a class of E. coli that produces a sickening toxin and causes an estimated 73,000 illnesses each year... Six other E. coli strains that also produce the toxin account for the majority of non-O157 E. coli cases — estimated at 30,000 illnesses in the U.S. each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But just 5 percent of public health laboratories nationally test for these strains, so there is no reliable way to know whether the number of illnesses is increasing. The CDC recommended last year that labs test for other potentially dangerous strains when they test for E. coli O157 during an outbreak of illness."

But apparently, the demand — or lack thereof — from the meat industry for additional testing methods has caused the science to drag behind. The USDA has been working for 3 years on screening tests that could be widely used, but has reliable tests for only four of the additional six strains. They hope to develop screens for all six within the next few months.

Marler hopes that this push for expanded testing within the meat industry will prompt other industries, such as produce, to do the same. "And with more testing," he writes, "less outbreaks and illness." The story of Stephanie Smith is heartbreaking, and no matter how much Cargill is punished, we need to do more to develop a proactive approach to food safety — expanded testing of known pathogens is a good start.

Photo: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com