Publisher Platform: E. coli, please go away

– NOTICE –

The Flathead City-County Health Department (FCCHD) and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) have been working since last month to investigate an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 that has sickened 14 people and killed one, likely linked to a local producer of Wagu ground beef. The beef was served at Gunsight Saloon; Hops Downtown Grill; Tamarack Brewing Company; The Lodge at Whitefish Lake; and Harbor Grille. Clinical and food samples were tested for the same strain of E. coli O157:H7.

I represent two of the sick people and we will be filing lawsuits against two of the above restaurants and the unnamed supplier and processor of the contaminated Wagu ground beef next week.

Frankly, this is one of the biggest cases of E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef that I have seen or been involved with in a long time. I really hope this outbreak is an aberration and that we are not seeing a surge in E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks related to beef. I thought the USDA and the beef industry had put E. coli O157:H7 out to pasture – apparently it broke the fence.

Nearly 32 years ago, the infamous Jack-in-the-Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak was about to erupt unnoticed in Southern California and then explode in Western Washington in January 1993. I was a partner for 4 years when more than 650 people became ill, hundreds were hospitalized, dozens suffered acute kidney failure, and four children died. The ensuing litigation rocked the beef and restaurant industries and even woke a sleepy government to action. On September 28, 1994, FSIS Administrator Mike Taylor, in a speech to the American Meat Institute, stated, “To clarify an important legal point, we consider raw ground beef contaminated with E. coli to be a “safety-based” food source.” O157:H7 is considered adulterated under the Food and Drug Inspection Act (FDIA). We are prepared to use enforcement tools, if necessary, to exclude adulterated products from commerce. Finally, we plan to conduct targeted sampling and testing of raw ground beef at plants and in the marketplace to detect possible contamination.

The designation of E. coli O157:H7 as an adulterant in ground meat was a game changer, as was the lawsuit filed by the victim in the years that followed. Change takes time and is sometimes painful. During those years, outbreaks still occurred, albeit on a smaller scale, and recalls took place, much larger.

However, I recall that in the summer of 2003, a year after I wrote an op-ed urging the beef industry to “put me out of business,” there were no outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7, and in subsequent years they continued to be largely inconsequential. This trend has continued over the past 20 years—there have been a few outbreaks, but again, generally in smaller numbers.

I have often said that E. coli O157:H7 in hamburgers kept me 95% busy between 1993 and 2003, and since then it has dropped to near zero. This is clearly a victory for public health, as well as for the beef and restaurant industries.

Let’s hope this Montana outbreak is an aberration. Let’s hope the beef and restaurant industries haven’t lost sight of the primary goal of “putting me out of business” and are putting E. coli O157:H7 back behind the fence.

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