Washington - With the death toll from listeria-tainted foods rising, U.S. regulators will consider requiring warning labels on packages of hot dogs or stricter testing by meat plants, a U.S. Agriculture Department official said.
Listeria, a relatively unknown foodborne disease, has been a focus of media attention in recent weeks with a string of outbreaks reported in U.S. delicatessen meats, milk and other refrigerated products that do not need cooking.
At least 16 deaths have been blamed on Sara Lee Corp hot dogs and lunch meat since August, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which raised the death toll Wednesday. The agency is monitoring the outbreak in 14 states.
The recent cases have puzzled regulators, who say there is no obvious reason to account for the increase.
“We're considering everything at this point,” Margaret Glavin, associate administrator of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, told reporters.
A warning label for high-risk consumers is “one of the areas we are exploring,” Glavin said. Another option is to require plants to test for listeria, or increase the USDA's current random sampling of meat products for listeria.
Food industry officials contend that more research is needed before the USDA issues any new rules.
Listeria typically affects only infants, unborn babies, the elderly and others with weak immune systems. While less common than the foodborne diseases campylobacter or salmonella, 20% of those who get sick from listeria die.
One immediate step that should be taken, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, is to require listeria testing by companies of the riskiest food products.
“We need better testing of ready-to-eat foods that consumers do not cook,” said Caroline Smith De Waal, a food safety analyst with the center.
The USDA and the Food and Drug Administration now conduct random testing for listeria. The USDA regulates meat and poultry, while the FDA is responsible for other foods.
Last year, the USDA took a total of 3,547 product samples for listeria from some 2,000 U.S. plants, Glavin said. Ninety of the samples, or about 2.5%, tested positive.
Since December, Sara Lee Corp has recalled an estimated 35 million pounds of hog dogs and luncheon meat, but expects to actually retrieve only about 15 million pounds.
Hormel Foods Corp, Thorn Apple Valley and grocery store chain Winn-Dixie recently recalled products because of suspected listeria. Thorn Apple Valley said Thursday that the cost of its hot dog recall could reach $7 million.
Tuesday, single-serve cartons of milk sold under the Land O'Lakes brand were also recalled.
The USDA has scheduled a public meeting Wednesday to look at how to prevent listeria and improve company recalls.
High on the list are industry procedures for recalling meat suspected of contamination, and how companies use “sell-by” dates on meat and poultry labels.
Lester Crawford, a former head of the FSIS, said the outbreaks were especially startling because the Centers for Disease Control determined in 1994 that the industry had successfully reduced listeria contamination.
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