Resolution 090715

..Title Calling on the U.S. Congress and the Department of Agriculture to Investigate the Practice of Slaughterhouse Operators Prohibiting Ground Beef Manufacturers from Testing for E. coli Contamination Ingredients Supplied by Slaughterhouse Operators. ..Body WHEREAS, Meat companies and grocers have been barred from selling ground beef tainted by E. coli known as O157:H7 since 1994; and WHEREAS, Tens of thousands of people are nevertheless sickened each year by E. coli contaminated beef burger meat; and WHEREAS, Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last three years alone, and this summer, contamination led to the recall of beef from nearly 3,000 grocers in 41 states; and WHEREAS, Even a single hamburger patty is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder but instead, consists of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and from different slaughterhouses; and WHEREAS, While ground meat has a higher incidence of E. coli contamination, the federal government does not require ground meat processors to test their ingredients for the presence of E. coli bacteria; and WHEREAS, Most meat companies rely on suppliers to check for the bacteria and do not test their own product until after the incoming ingredients are ground together, despite USDA guidance that they test ingredients first as a way of increasing the chance of finding contamination; and WHEREAS, Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to hamburger manufacturers that agree not to test shipments for E. coli contamination; and WHEREAS, Testing only after the raw materials have been ground together, prevents the discovery of where and at what slaughterhouse the E. coli contamination originated; and WHEREAS, The meat industry treats much of its practices and the ingredients in ground beef as trade secrets; and WHEREAS, Some ground beef producers that test raw materials before grinding have complained of retribution from slaughterhouse operators with one saying that, "If I test and it's positive, I put them in a regulatory situation. One, I have to tell the government, and two, the government will trace it back to them. So we don't do that,"; and WHEREAS, An Agriculture Department survey of more than 2,000 plants showed that half of the grinders did not test their finished ground beef for E. coli and that only 6 percent tested incoming ingredients at least four times a year; and WHEREAS, A recent New York Times story chronicled the medical condition of a women (22) who ate a burger tainted with E. coli where within a day, she experienced bloody diarrhea, kidney failure, seizures, coma and eventually, with her nervous system ravaged, permanent paralysis; now therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the Philadelphia City Council calls on the U. S. Congress and the Department of Agriculture to Investigate the Practice of Slaughterhouse Operators Prohibiting Ground Beef Manufacturers from Testing for E. coli Contamination Ingredients Supplied by Slaughterhouse Operators. ..End