This is an article that ran about a month ago. When I initially read it
nothing registered and I moved on. Then in last week's issue there was a
letter to the editor from Laura Shioli titled "Who's worrying about people
with allergies?" So I dug out the article for you all to read. Don.

Keeping the Bugs off the Beef

Business Week: March 6, 2000
Department: News: Analysis & Commentary: Food
Headline: Keeping the Bugs off the Beef
Deck: A new process could drastically reduce food-borne disease
Byline: By Joseph Weber in Chicago

Each year, more than four million Americans get sick after eating
bacteria-tainted foods, and more than 1,200 die. Despite hot-water rinsing
and steam pasteurization, common bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella
still vex meat handlers. Indeed, just last September, more than 300 people
were sickened by E. coli-infected beef at a party in Petersburg, Ill.

Now, researchers at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona and
packing giant Farmland National Beef Packing Co. say they' ve come up with
a natural way to neutralize these microbes. The solution: a spray that
detaches the contaminants from meat, preventing bacteria from binding to
iron and starving them so they can't reproduce. The spray, to be detailed
at a Feb. 29 Agriculture Dept. conference, uses activated lactoferrin, a
protein derived from cow's milk. ``It's a very novel approach to food
safety,'' says John R. Miller, chief executive of Farmland.

KEY ADVANTAGES. Novel--and less politically sensitive--than irradiation of
beef, which is now the most effective weapon against E. coli. Irradiation
was cleared by the Agriculture Dept. on Feb. 22, but with ``Frankenfood' '
fears on the rise, industry insiders fret it will never catch on.

By contrast, researchers at Farmland and Cal Poly believe lactoferrin
offers key advantages. They claim the protein can ward off bacterial
contamination for 45 days or more, so treated meat will remain safe long
after it's bought or opened. That's a big leap over protection from
irradiation, which ends when a package is opened. And equipment to apply
the spray would be cheaper than the multimillion-dollar cost of radiation
devices, says Farmland's Miller, who plans to commercialize it.

Farmland, which is based in Kansas City, Mo., still needs regulatory
approval, but if the spray works, it could stem the rise in bacteria-
caused recalls for all kinds of meats, which now average one a week. So
far, tests in labs and at a pilot slaughterhouse at Cal Poly look
encouraging. A.S. ``Narain'' Naidu, head of the school's Center for
Antimicrobial Research, found the spray works against E. coli, Salmonella,
and even 10 radiation-resistant bacteria. ``We took a natural compound, an
innate defense factor in the cow, and we replenished it back into the cow
after slaughtering,'' he says.

While details of the work have not been widely disclosed yet, food- safety
advocates and industry insiders alike are intrigued. ``That sounds like the
kind of technology that provides minimal input into the production process
but can deliver a significant safety result, '' says Caroline Smith DeWaal,
director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a
watchdog group. For now, testing is still at early stages, and many
questions--including the spray' s effectiveness on poultry or pork--remain
to be answered. But the prospect of a more effective antibacterial
treatment is clearly the most savory news the beef industry has had in some
time.

Copyright 2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
By Joseph Weber in Chicago, Keeping the Bugs off the Beef., 03-06-2000.