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There is a wide range of meat products that can be contaminated with EHEC O157. These include sausages, ground beef, fresh beef from food stores, and hamburgers (Doyle &Schoeni, 1987). The first outbreak of EHEC O157 was reported in 1982 when 47 people in Oregon and Michigan were infected after eating undercooked hamburgers from the same fast food chain (Czajkowsk et al., 2005). Of more than 100 outbreaks of EHEC O157 reported between 1982 and 1999, 52% were linked to foods derived from cattle. In the majority of cases, contamination with EHEC O157 in beef occurs at the slaughterhouse, where carcasses can come into contact with intestine contents or feces; Bonardi, Maggi, Pizzin, Morabito&Caprioli, (2001) found that prevalence of carcass contamination were largely influence by slaughter practices. Research has also shown that E. coli can also colonize the ceca of chicken (Doyle &Schoeni, 1987). Some of these bacteria get excreted through feces over several months and contact of poultry meat with feces during slaughter or processing may result in contamination.
One of the biggest E. coli outbreaks in the U.S. occurred in January 1993, when a total of 732 people across three western states fell sick after eating E. coli contaminated hamburgers sold by Jack in the Box restaurants (Ulmer &Sellnow, 2000; Juska, Gouveia, Gabriel & Stanley, 2003). Four children ultimately lost their lives. Following this outbreak, public awareness of the impact of E. coli infection on human health rose significantly. Subsequently, in 1994, E. coli was declared an adulterant in ground beef by the United States Department of Agriculture (Kassenborg et al., 2004) and sale of raw beef contaminated with the bacteria was prohibitedمحظور. The USDA further recommended that hamburgers be cooked thoroughly until an internal temperature of 160ºF is reached.
For nearly a century prior to the 1993 E. coli outbreak, USDA inspectors relied on “sniff and poke” method, relying on the human eye and nose to check slaughterhouse carcasses (Juska, et al., 2003). In 1996, under the implementation of new food safety plan, the USDA required that each meat processing plant test for non-specific strains of E. coli while the USDA tested for EHEC O157. Tests performed by the USDA after the implementation of this plan, found very low percentage of E. coli contamination in meat samples of beef slaughterhouses.
However, in 2006, another major E. coli outbreak occurred. This time it was associated with the consumption of spinach (Grant, 2008). 205 people across 26 states fell ill and 3 died from the outbreak (Jay, 2007). Investigations revealed that the E. coli outbreak strain originated from feces of cattle and feral swine, which roamed on the spinach farms.
More recently, in November 2015, a popular fast food chain restaurant in the USA was embroiled in an outbreak of E. coli O26, which also produces the potent Shiga toxin. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, a total of 55 people were infected (FDA, 2016).
The detection of E. coli contamination in meat often results in huge losses. In the fall of 2007, Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) which falls under the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) ordered the recall of over 30 million pounds of ground beef from the market. The consumption of raw or improperly cooked meat is often blamed for EHEC O157 infections.
To avoid the contamination of meat productsafter slaughter, processing plants across the world have adopted a number of standards and procedures (Elder et al., 2000). Examples of anti-microbial interventions currently in use include washing with organic acids, steam pasteurization, and hot water washes. More recently, the use of Bacteriophage has been found to be highly effective (Seo et al., 2016). The most important bacteriophage strain in inhibiting the growth of EHEC O157 in meat and meat products is BPECO19 (Tomat et al., 2013). For the bacteriophage to be effective in preventing the growth of EHEC O157, favorable conditions must be established. Research has shown that Bacteriophage BPECO19 is most effective at temperatures of 4°C (Seo et al., 2016).
The term Escherichia coli, also often referred to as E. coli refers to a group of rod-shaped, gram negative, and facultative anaerobic bacteria that are present in the intestines of warm blooded organisms (Zhao et al., 2012). The group of bacteriacan have some effect food especially meat. When Escherichia coli bacteria come into contact with meat, it results in its contamination (Tomat et al., 2014). The contamination of meat with Escherichia coli can occur during the slaughter of meat animals or during processing. Failure to cook contaminated meat properly leads to Escherichia coli infections often associated with vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps.
It is also worth noting that Escherichia coli bacteria releases Shiga toxin. Meat contaminated with Escherichia coli is likely to have some amounts of Shiga toxin (Tomat et al., 2014). The amount of Shiga toxin present in meat depends on the size of Escherichia coli population in meat. The Shiga toxin leads to serious health problems to meat consumers such as kidney failure. Subsequently, Escherichia coli bacteria tend to lower the value of meat (Zhao et al., 2012). In some cases, the meat contaminated with the group of bacteria has to be disposed to prevent having adverse health effects in the society.