The American Meat Institute, along with other organizations, asked the U.S. government to delay a testing plan and ban on non-O157 strains of E. coli in ground beef and beef trim. The organizations, which include the Southwest Meat Association, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the National Meat Association, believe that the non-O157 strains do not pose an urgent public health risk. They also believe that current methods used to control E. coli O157:H7, one strain of the pathogenic bacteria, adequately control the other strains. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that non-O157 E. coli strains cause about 112,000 illnesses in the United States every year. Beef consumption is implicated in 36,700 of those illnesses. The Consumer Federation of … [Read more...]