New York Lawmaker Introduces Legislation to Address Additional E. Coli Strains

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has introduced a bill that would regulate six confirmed strains of E. coli that have largely been ignored given the notoriety of recalls involving meat and produce contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. Referred to by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as non-0157 STECs, the six strains are apparently estimated to cause 36,700 illnesses, 1,100 hospitalizations and 30 deaths in the United States annually. In a May 27, 2010, statement, Gillibrand indicated that these strains are increasingly found in imported beef, which is not checked for the unregulated non-0157 STECs. One of the six strains was implicated in the recent outbreak linked to tainted romaine lettuce; that outbreak reportedly sent three teenagers to the hospital with kidney failure.

According to a news source, the U.S. Department of Agriculture regulated the lesser-known E. coli strains for three years, but industry has resisted regulation contending that the rarer strains have not been conclusively linked to beef. The New York Times reports that plaintiffs’ lawyer Bill Marler has found the six strains in less than 1 percent of ground beef samples purchased at grocery stores, albeit at a slightly higher rate than the O157 strain. Few labs reportedly test for non-0157 STECs, but some companies, such as Earthbound Farm, the largest U.S. producer of organic salad greens, screens for all toxic E. coli strains. Gillibrand’s legislation would amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act to define “adulterated” to include contamination with E. coli and would include all seven strains within the definition of E. coli, thus requiring USDA to spot test for the strains and “force companies (through legal pressure) to test and eliminate the pathogen.” See The New York Times, May 26, 2010; Senator Gillibrand Press Release, May 27, 2010.