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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 26, 2001)
1 Page 8 NATION Tuesday, June 26,5 7 THE BATTALION Food companies look for bacteria killer: NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Prunes can kill E. coli bacteria in ground beef. Cinnamon will do the same thing in juice. Salt helps destroy a pathogen that contaminates chicken. Prodded by lawsuits and gov ernment regulations, the food industry is looking everywhere from kitchen cupboards to uni versity laboratories for weapons against dangerous bacteria. One of the most sophisticat ed weapons being pitched to food scientists at their annual convention this week is a system that uses high pressure to de stroy microbes. High-tech pack aging that kills bacteria also is under development. At the Uni versity of California-Davis, lasers are under study as an an timicrobial treatment. “These products are respond ing to a demand,” said Carol Tucker Foreman, director of the Consumer Federation of Amer ica’s Food Policy Institute. “You’ve got to have a whole bunch of them because one thing will work well for one company, and others will work for other companies.” Foreman cautioned that ad ditives and treatments should become substitutes for not properly cleaning plants and food products. Food companies are “trying to get as much information as possible” on new antimicrobial treatments, said Alice Johnson, director of food safety pro grams for the National Food Processors Association. Lawsuits and food recalls for microbial contamination can be devastating to a company’s pub lic image, if not its bottom line. Sara Lee Corp. last week plead ed guilty to a misdemeanor and agreed to pay $4.4 million for selling tainted meat blamed for least 15 deaths in 1998. About 76 million cases of food-borne illness are diag nosed nationwide each year, re sulting in 5,000 deaths and 325,000 hospitalizations, ac cording to the government. The closest thing to a magic bullet that the industry has so far is irradiation, either with elec tron beams or radioactive mate rials. The government approved the use of irradiation on meat last year and is expected to de cide soon whether to allow it for luncheon meats, hot dogs and other precooked meat products. Irradiation equipment is ex pensive and consumer accept ance has been slow. Sara Lee is now heating some of its meat products to kill Listeria monocytogenes, the bac teria that caused the 1998 poi sonings, Johnson said. Other meat companies are trying var ious additives to kill listeria. ConAgra Foods subsidiary Armour Swift-Ekrich got the Agriculture Department’s per mission last year to use higher amounts of a common meat fla voring, sodium diacetate, to pre vent listeria growth. It remains to be seen whether prune growers will sell meat companies on their product. Ac cording to a Kansas State Uni versity study presented at the In stitute of Food Technologists convention Monday, the equiv alent of one tablespoon of prune puree per pound of hamburger can kill more than 90 percent of the E. coli. The secret is believed to lie in a couple of acids that prunes contain. “Yes, it may have antimicro bial properties, but 1 wouldn’t stop cooking the meat. The fla vor is fine,” said Steve Kenney, a University of Georgia graduate student who sampled oneof| prune burgers at the Calift Dried Plum Board’s booth, ( )ther research has I a combination of cinnamon^ carbon dioxide can destroi! coli in apple juice; a solutioi salt and phosphates can; Campylobacter, a pathogerl chicken; the herb ginkgoki is deadly to listeria. A high-pressure system! veloped by Flow Intermtl of Kent, Wash., is attracnrj tention. Food is subiners::| water and subjected toenJ pressure to fatally damageT teria without affecting din itself. Processors that want to use heat treatment!) been attracted to the systri ,g foo ubjecl The Te team will 1 iremier e jrime-timf 'Sidelines. The sei jled to b tended to [on of pr [old by the tbrated p I'olved wit Student tal store o ispiring pi [us insteac [oaches. "Coach (the decisic ixciting v laid Wally ithletics d iress relea bore thril hosen Te: nies. The gave us to ■erful inst tradition a wing we c BBO BUFFET DINE IN/CARRY-OUT 979-779-BQUE (2783) 506 Sulphur Springs block behind Bryan Long John Silver Buy 3 buffets I OR ONE DOLLAR OFF BUPPY’S BBQ BUFFET I PRO-NAILS NOW ACCEPTING AGGIE BUCKS! OFFER GOOD AT THIS LOCATION ONLY. We Carry OP! Polishes SPECIALS { MANICURE - & PEDICURE I $ REFILL 23.00 i $ 10.00 JACUZZI SPA PEDICURE *20.00 Appc. | & Walk-ins Welcome Monday - Friday 9 am - 8 pm Saturday 9 am - 7 pm «L*W FULL SET t *20.00 \ w/couponc 1919 S. 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