Last month, I wrote about how industry has managed to virtually eliminate E. coliO157:H7 from our beef supply. Indeed, in the last two years, there have been only a handful of recalls relating to E. coli, and none were associated with foodborne illnesses or outbreaks.  

Can anyone really guarantee that your products will never be implicated in a recall? For most raw beef processors, the response has consistently been that, in the absence of a validated intervention such as high-pressure processing or irradiation, such a statement was impossible.

In our last column, we introduced the fundamental challenges facing the industry as it works to improve food safety.