Omnivore - You can eat this E. coli but not that E. coli
Rarer forms of E. coli appear to be emerging but go untested
Front-page news at the New York Times today is the debate over whether food safety testing should be extended to emerging forms of rarer strains of E. coli in both hamburger and produce.
You might wonder why there’s even a question about this, considering that one of the strains sickened at least 26 people, causing kidney failure in three teenagers last month. But so it goes when the US Department of Agriculture and corporate farming put their heads together.
The USDA has been waffling on the matter for three years. But new legislation may preempt the agency and explicitly make selling hamburger contaminated with any strain of E. coli illegal.
In the meantime, you may want to avoid eating any hamburger cooked less than medium. Bu avoiding the potentially deadly microbes in produce is more problematic.
Give the story a read.