I have heard from the Canadian Meat Council and the American Meat Institute and need to correct an earlier version of this article which cited only the "meat industry", not the entire "U.S. food industry.
The United States food industry is missing targets to reduce harmful
bacteria by a wide margin.
For example, the target for Salmonella is 6.8 per 100,000 people or
lower, but last year the actual rate was 16.5.
That is, however, a reduction from 17.5 the previous year.
There has been a 50 per cent decline in the rate for E. coli 0157:H7
since 1996, but E. coli strains other than 0157:H7 increased and totaled more
than for 0157:H7 last year.
The data comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC).
It reports that the rate for Shingella infections have fallen to 3.2 per
100,000 people from 8.9 since 1996.
However, infection rate goals for Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria
were not met in 2011.
Campylobacter infected 14.3 per 100,000 people – higher than the goal of
12.3 – while the rate of Listeria infection of 0.28 was slightly above the goal
of 0.24 set in 2010.
Industry experts point to increased screening by ground beef producers
for the lower E. coli results, which were generated by the FoodNet network that
gathers data from public health laboratories in 10 states.
