The new blood test

[cakadu]

Enough - food safety is a concern for all of us and should not be taken lightly. You are right to ask - as all people (consumers) should be.

E-coli is a surface bacteria and if you handle it properly and cook it to the right temperature, you will not be harmed. Ground beef is bad because it isn't on the surface anymore, it is throughout the meat and that is why so much of what we hear about e-coli has to do with hamburgers.

Improper handling of food and food surfaces in the home accounts for approximately 65 to 70% of all food safety issues. So don't put cooked meat on the same plate that you had the raw meat on, just for a start.

Water is another source of contaimination for various diseases as we all know.

Nothing we do in this life comes without risk of some sort. How much risk each individual takes is variable. Personally, I look at things on a case by case basis and decide for myself. My food is one of the things that I don't take many chances with and as I learn more, I take less chances.

I have to say that I am not in the slightest worried about BSE - mostly because I know that I will never eat those things that are considered to be the highest risk - i.e. brain, spinal cord etc. I'm also not worried about e-coli because I practice as much food safety as I can - much to my husband's chagrin our hamburger is thoroughly cooked now - and I try to minimize cross-contamination as much as possible.

Keep asking your questions - the more informed we can get you, the better off we all are.

[cowman]

Well I have to agree with enough on this one. And like he says he represents the majority! Well maybe not yet because people are still buying beef. When will the stampede start to stop eating beef? When we get another case? Or two or three? Or will it be when people start getting vCJD? Will it take a picture of some young girl flopping around like a chicken with her head cut off, on television?
How will we keep our customers then? Will we dazzle them with facts and figures? Oh the chances of getting this are slim sort of thing? Will they continue to buy that?
Now the diehard beef eaters will still eat beef, but if they are given a choice between certified BSE free beef and no test beef which do you think they will choose?

[carebear300]

Good point cowman you should have been a politician, they way you can explain things and put them in perspective. I agree!!!!!

[Bruce14]

No cowman we will TELL THEM THE TRUTH AS WE KNOW IT. Have you not read that there have been 143 cases of vCJD in the U.K. out of 60,000,000 people and around 200,000 confirmed cases of BSE. 143 people have contracted the disease in a hotbed of contaminated product and a couple of those have been said to have been vegetarians. The U.K. is also famous for its processed meats. If you can grind it up and put in a casing or any other form they would eat it as there ancestors did.

I realize that vCJD is not a disease anyone would choose. I also know several more that I wish too avoid.

I still agree with you on the need for increased testing but your further fearmongering does little to inform anyone of the facts.

[rusty1]

enough - if what you say is so critical,then explain whay beef consmprion had gone up an unprecedented 60 %

[cowman]

Bruce: Am I fearmongering? Or am I asking questions that need to be answered? What is the extent of our BSE problem? Do we really know? Maybe we have just scratched the surface? Who knows? Did the UK have any idea of what was going to happen when they got their first taste of BSE?
When(and if) we get a case of vCJD do you think the media will run with it? How will we explain our food safety problems then? Do you believe an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

[pandiana]

Yes cowman, I agree with Bruce on this point. You are fearmongering when you ignore the statistics associated with the risk of vCJD, and reinforcing unwarranted fear of beef in particular. I believe, like cakadu, that the correct perspective would suggest that 1, BSE is obviously a concern because it is devastating the beef industry. Why is this? In a large part it is fear associated with media response and the fact that the UK situation was not assessed early on as being as serious as it turned out to be. 2. ALL FOOD is at risk of being contaminated as recently reported for lettuce and spinach or other vegetables eaten raw or improperly prepared. 3. As cakadu also reported, our water is increasingly contaminated with pathogens that cause serious debilitating illness.

Many have quoted statistics that life cannot be lived without accepting some risk. We would never leave home, drink or eat if we didn't find a way of keeping these risks in perspective.

[jgstuart]

This is where we get into the murky world of perception vs science. Its true that you probably have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than of contracting vCJD, but in matters concerning food safety, perception is far more important than reality. While I believe its important to get the science out there, convincing the public is another matter. In many cases (Europe in particular)...the vast majority simply doesn't believe the science. Unfortunately, in the early stages of their BSE crisis the science was wrong, and now many have lost all confidence in anything they now tell them. Perhaps even more damaging, is that many perceive (rightly or wrongly) that "science" is controlled (financially) by the major agrifood corporations. We have seen the same thing in the grains industry. Although there is no science to indicate any problem with the consumption of genetically modified organisms....the European public will simply not buy anything associated with genetic engineering. Japan is another case in point. And while we may chastise the governments of these nations for not taking a more progressive "scientific" view, they are simply responding to the concerns of their own constituents. After all...they all want to be re-elected. I guess what I'm saying is that food safety can be a very emotional issue, and when that emotion is fear, you are fighting an uphill battle. My own view is that we are at a crossroads in the beef industry. We either make an agressive move to test every animal and market our product as the #1 product in the world...or we sit back, hoping for the best and waiting for the next shoe to drop. (The next case of BSE). Unfortunately I feel that shoe will drop...its just a matter of when. I realize that testing every animal does not come without a cost (however that cost seems to be coming down and I believe that it is feasible.)The first rule of marketing any product is...the customer is always right....even if they're wrong.

[raymondb]

I wander who started the fearmongering about the human risks associated with BSE infected animals-was it the politicians, the media, or science or something else?? The producer is suffering the most today because of the fearmongering yet what will the consequences be to the people who started this when it is proven that we have little to be concerned about when considering the safety of beef on the shelf as it is related to contamination as a result of BSE.

[pandiana]

Keeping risk in perspective does not in any way suggest that we should not deal with public perception. And I certainly support an aggressive move towards determining just exactly what the risk is. The most logical way of doing this at this time would be to do more testing. I would also agree that science does not have a lot of the answers regarding BSE and vCJD. We should always assess the credibility of science, politics and the media.

[ianben]

UK Bse cases by year of birth
74 1
75 0
76 2
77 10
78 6
79 41
80 102
81 262
82 1393
84 8069
85 11070
86 19749
87 36921
88 22245
89 12720
90 5723
91 4719
92 3443
93 2876
94 2020
95 976
96 46
97 31
98 14
99 1

I think these figures show how the fear from BSE started
From nothing to tens of thousands in ten years.
Feeding meat and bone was definatly the trigger for the explosion in cases.

However still one or two unexplaned cases.
If you test you will find the odd case that must always have been there.

To be honest CJD cases here will be the real test.
Any sign of a spike in numbers in the next twenty years and comsumers will switch out of beef
Too many alternatives!!

[cakadu]

Our friend ianben can probably attest to this, but it is my understanding that the problem with vCJD in the U.K. was the fact that the government at first stated that there was no risk to human health, which we now know in hindsight to be false. If you want a good explanation of what went wrong with the BSE in the U.K. pick up a book called "Mad Cows and Mothers Milk" by Doug Powell. It is a most interesting read.

Part of the reason that the U.K. and Europe fear genetically engineered food is because it was launched about the same time as the BSE crisis was taking shape over there and the people did not want to believe anything that the government had to say at that point in time.

I think we also have to look at the numbers and keep things in the proper perspective.

If we continue to be told what the scientists know - we cannot expect them to tell us what they don't know or worst of all guess because that will cause a mass panic which we don't need - then we have to decide for ourselves whether or not we trust the science.

We should test more, if and only if, we are prepared to deal with what arises from the testing. It will be great if we don't come up with any more cases, but what if we do - then what?

I am 100% in total agreement with informing consumers based on logic and science - not fearmongering and innuendo. That way we are able to make our choices based on solid information.