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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
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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
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