Agri officials intensify hunt
for E.coli, food-borne diseases

FOR many Filipinos, urban living means survival in a carnivorous world. But are those juicy burgers or chicken wings and drumsticks safe enough for the fast-food crowd?

Not until recently when a prominent political family lost a loved one to what doctors at the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital in Greenhills, San Juan, say was exposure to Escherichia coli (E-coli) strain, did the public became fully aware of what the deadly strain can do to the health of a person.

Typhoid fever, meanwhile, is caused by Salmonella thypimurium. This type of strain is a common inhabitant of intestinal tracts of animals, especially poultry and cattle.

Government scientists concede that these are the two most common food-borne pathogens which have become a major concern of government and the private sector in public health safety.

Officials at the National Meat Inspection Services (NMIS) and the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) said that contaminated beef and other meat, milk, and water are the most common sources of disease-producing organisms or pathogens. Bloody diarrhea and related diseases, for instance, are caused by a pathogen called Escherichia coli.

Dr. Efren Nuestro, executive director of NMIS, stated earlier that meat establishments are required by law to be accredited by his agency, and regulatory processes are strictly imposed to ensure that meat products are safe for human consumption.

“The Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) is a mandatory requirement to ‘AA’ and ‘AAA’ category meat establishments before they are given clearance to sell their products to the public,” Dr. Nuestro said. “But even if we certify and monitor the meat products, once it is in the hands of the handler (i.e. cook), it will be difficult to determine the hygienic state of the meat.”

He advises the public that continuity of properly handling the meat until the food is eaten should be practiced religiously in the households.

NMIS standard procedures include the monitoring of the meat products once it passes the rigid tests at the NMIS biotech laboratory. The monitoring program includes getting meat samples from the market and grocery shelves to determine if the meat products comply with shelf-life sanitation.

“There is a gray area and time element which starts from the time the meat is bought from the market or grocery to the time it is cleansed, to the time it is cooked and served,” Dr. Nuestro said. “Prolonged warm temperature of food comes to a point that it will be conducive to the growth of food-borne organisms.”

He said that the NMIS and other government agencies have intensified the monitoring of animals slaughtered in meat establishments, slaughterhouses, poultry-dressing plants, meat-processing plants, cold storage plants and meat-cutting plants before the meat is certified for compliance and releasing.

Dr. Cynthia Nalo-Ochona, a researcher at the BAI said that the 015787 strain or E-coli is normally present in bovine intestines. She said that the E-coli strain is very hard to eradicate or kill because it requires an extremely high temperature to destroy it.

“That is why we always advice consumers and meat handlers to clean and cook the meat properly in order to avoid affliction with the deadly bacteria,” Dr. Nalo-Ochona said.

She said that a similar incident of E-coli contamination happened in the US during the controversial Jack-in-the-Box hamburger chain incident where several people became very ill with the disease.

“E-coli produces the toxin-causing toxemia,” Dr. Nalo-Ochona said. “But if treated immediately with anti-Biotics or antibacterial drugs, the disease can be controlled.”

Dr. Nuestro said the NMIS regularly conducts the Standard Sanitation Operating Procedures (SSOP) and the higher level, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP). He said that among the hazards being monitored and studied are the levels of pathogen (E-coli), chemicals (drugs, residues, additives and preservatives, and physical (metal and other strange objects).

“It is one way of ensuring that the product is safe for human consumption once it complies with the SSOP process,” he said. “Meat being examined is well represented by samples or systematic random sampling.”