The year 2007 is often non-affectionately referred to as “The Year of the Recall.” In 2007, there were a total of 23 recalls of USDA-regulated beef products for the presence of E. coli O157:H7, amounting to more than 35,000,000 pounds of beef products being recalled. Many of those recalls were triggered by large-scale outbreaks, which resulted in countless lawsuits and years of prolonged litigation.
At the time, the industry was still struggling with how to respond to a pathogen that was considered to be naturally occurring in cattle, inherent on farms and in feedlots, and nearly impossible (so, it seemed at the time) to control. Indeed, only a few years earlier, experts were proclaiming that trying to eliminate E. coli O157:H7 from the beef supply by adopting new regulatory requirements which were virtually impossible to satisfy would be like trying to eliminate airline crashes by having Congress repeal the laws of gravity. The objective of a near O157:H7-free beef supply, many argued, would be too costly and too impossible to achieve.