Recently we received that dreaded call that a child had become ill with E.coli O157:H7 poisoning, and although they couldn’t say for sure, they believed over the past couple of weeks the child may have eaten one of our burgers.

In the meat industry, one might consider Wayne Marcho, founder of Marcho Farms, to be a trailblazer, as he has had a long history of investment into doing “what’s right” by the company and its consumers — the most recent evidence occurring when its continuous-improvement efforts were turned toward its already-strong food-safety record.

Unfortunately, while recalls relating pathogens have declined, the overall number of industry recalls seems to be increasing.

So far, this year, there has not been a single recall of raw ground beef for the presence of E. coli O157:H7 or non O157 STECs (“E. coli”).