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Issue Number: Council III 010
Title
Issue you would like the Conference to consider
The Blade Tenderization Committee submits up-dated "Guidelines for Producing or Cooking Mechanically Tenderized Beef for Retail and Food Service Establishments".
Public Health Significance
The submitted guidelines are intended to control contamination by Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 and other pathogenic Shiga-toxin producing E. coli [STEC] E. coli and Salmonella species during the production, handling, or preparation of mechanically tenderized or injected beef at food service establishments and retail food stores. Since control procedures for E. coli O157:H7, and other pathogenic E. coli also control Salmonella and other microbiological pathogens, these recommended guidelines will refer specifically to the control of E. coli O157:H7 but will be inclusive of these additional foodborne pathogens.
E. coli O157:H7 is a significant public health concern in raw ground beef and the meat industry has implemented a variety of procedures to control this hazard. However, several recent E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks and resulting recalls linked to non-intact tenderized beef have raised concern about the safety of these products. The relatively recent recalls and outbreaks of non-intact tenderized beef products have also caused great interest in: 1) determining the potential risk these products pose to public health; and 2) the development of food safety preventive measures to control such risks during the production and preparation of non-intact beef products.
Recommended Solution: The Conference recommends...
approval of the new revised guidance document titled "Guidelines for Producing or Cooking Mechanically Tenderized Beef for Retail and Food Service Establishments" and that it be made available to interested stakeholders on CFP's web site .
Additionally, the Conference recommends that a letter be sent to the FDA requesting that this guidance document be made available as an addendum to the Food Code.