When it comes to pathogen control in raw beef products, a lot has changed over the past 20 years. Since 2000, there have been nearly 250 recalls of beef products for the presence of E. coli O157:H7. The majority of those recalls (203) occurred prior to 2012 when there was a high number of foodborne illness outbreaks caused by E. coli O157:H7 contamination in ground beef products. Indeed, 2007 is aptly referred to as the Year of the Recall, during which 22 recalls involving approximately 35 million pounds of ground beef were announced because of the presence of E. coli O157:H7. Many of those recalls were triggered because the products at issue caused high-profile foodborne illness outbreaks.
In 2008, to combat the trend of outbreaks and recalls caused by E. coli O157:H7, FSIS began testing raw trim as well as ground beef for the presence of the pathogens. This led to additional industry awareness and trim testing, as well as the advent of more robust “High Event Period” programs, where trim that tested negative would also be diverted to cooking when there were high levels of contemporaneous positive findings. Some companies even began to cast a wider net, diverting multiple combos of trim which tested negative when a single combo tested positive.