from Dateline NBC - http://www.msnbc.com/news/260727.asp

[Guest guest]

Chief consumer correspondent Lea

reports a *Dateline* hidden-camera investigation

LAST YEAR, *DATELINE* launched a nationwide

survey of supermarket ground beef to find out if you

were

really getting 100 percent pure ground beef. What we

found

was that some supermarkets had added other meats ¯ even

poultry ¯ to the ground beef which is illegal.

So has anything changed? When we hit the

supermarket

aisles last year we had one question in mind ¯ just

like that

little old lady in the hamburger commercial: *Where¢s

the

beef?*

But it was no joke when we found that the ground

hamburger meat we bought in supermarkets around the

country wasn¢t pure.

In fact, in one third of the supermarkets

*Dateline*

shopped last year, we also found pork and lamb and even

poultry mixed into the ground beef. And in a few of the

supermarkets, the package label might well have read

*mystery meat* because we found all three meats added

in.

A year has passed since our last test ¯ so has

anything

changed? The answer is plenty! But the law hasn¢t

changed.

When you buy hamburger meat that says *pure ground

beef*

that¢s all it should be. In fact, it¢s illegal to sell

mixed meats

without telling people on the label ¯ it¢s called

adulteration.

The United States Department of Agriculture and

state

regulators say mixing up meats can be a health threat

because different meats and ground poultry need to be

cooked to different temperatures to kill all the

bacteria. Also,

some people avoid certain meats because they¢re

allergic or

for religious reasons.

So if other meats are added to the ground beef,

the law

says it must say so on the label. State and federal

laws

require grinders be completely disassembled and

sanitized in

between grinding different species of meat or poultry.

This

prevents accidental mixing of meats. *From our

perspective,

it doesn¢t matter how it got there,* says Joe Ferrara

of the

New York State Department of Agriculture. Ferrara told

us

New York is one of the few states testing for

adulteration.

*The issue is ¯ according to our regulations ¯ it

adulterated

or not,* he says. *If it is, it¢s illegal.*

After our story ran last year, we heard from

lots of

viewers who told us they were angry to find there might

have

been leftover trimmings from a dirty grinder. A year

ago,

when we did our story, most states didn¢t even test for

adulteration. That¢s one reason *Dateline* decided to

hire a

lab and test ourselves. As you may remember, we found

29

out of the 100 stores had sold us mixed meat. Since

that story

aired, more states have started testing programs. So we

decided to take another look this year.

So once again, *Dateline* staffers went out with

hidden

cameras to 100 different supermarkets in 10 different

cities

¯ 10 stores in each city.

We chose a mix of urban and suburban, fancy

specialty

and even health food stores. Once again, we shopped at

different times of the day, and different days of the

week.

Most importantly for our test this year, we went back

to

every store that failed our test last year ¯ all 29 of

them that

sold us adulterated ground beef.

We didn¢t buy extra lean, or extra fancy, just

basic

ground beef.

But the package labels always assured us that

inside it

was nothing but pure ground beef. Once we bought the

package of ground beef, we removed any store labels and

marked the samples with individual I.D. numbers. That

way

the lab wouldn¢t know from which stores the meat came ¯

but we would.

Our lab also instructed us to double tag each

sample to

make sure there was no chance of cross contamination.

Our lab told us to pack the samples with plenty

of ice to

maintain the same 40-degree temperature as when they

were

sold. The samples were shipped in coolers overnight to

Elisa

Technologies ¯ a USDA-recognized lab we hired in

Florida.

Elisa Technologies helped develop the test that

can tell if

there are other meats or poultry mixed into ground

beef.

Many states and even supermarket chains use its test

kits.

The lab tested each sample for three things: pork, lamb

and

poultry. If there is approximately one percent or more

of a

non-beef product in the sample, a chemical reaction

will

cause it to turn green.

As we said, *Dateline* made a point of

re-testing every

one of the 29 stores that sold us adulterated meat last

year.

Last year a package of ground beef we bought at a Super

K-mart outside Chicago had an estimated 29 percent pork

in

it. This year, K-mart¢s hamburger meat tested pure ¯

100

percent ground beef. At one C-Town supermarket in New

York, last year the package we bought had all three

non-beef

products mixed-in, making up an estimated 25 percent of

the

package. This year C-Town also passed the test with

flying

colors.

One thing that surprised us last year was that a

number

of so-called health food stores, like a Whole Foods in

Los

Angeles, a Fresh Fields in Philadelphia and a Wild Oats

in

Santa , had sold us ground beef that was

adulterated.

This time, the ground beef was what it was

supposed to

be ¯ pure beef ¯ a marked improvement.

Most of the stores that responded last year told

us they

would reinforce store policies against mixed meats.

Some

companies said they¢d even buy separate grinders for

non-beef products. In fact, of the 29 stores that

failed

*Dateline¢s* ground beef test last year, none sold us

adulterated meat this time. What happened to some of

the

stores that passed *Dateline¢s* test last year? In

Boston, we

found pork and lamb in ground beef at one Wollaston¢s,

pork

again at Wild Harvest and a Market Basket.

Just outside Chicago, pork at Sentry Foods and

in

Chicago at one Butera¢s, lots of pork as we¢ll tell you

later.

Treasure Island in Chicago: lamb, and in Miami, lab

tests

showed lamb again at a Publix grocery store.

That initial test doesn¢t tell you how much of

these other

meats there is in the ground beef. It could be as

little as one

or two percent and experts say that could just be

someone

making a mistake and not cleaning a grinder. But one

inspector we spoke with said if the percentage was much

higher, it could reflect deliberate adulteration.

We were surprised to find more than half of our

positive

samples showed high levels of adulteration, higher than

the

approximately one percent the USDA says is needed to

prove it.

So we asked the lab to do a second test on four

of the

positive samples. This test would show just how much of

another meat was in the ground beef.

So how much of those other meats did we find?

At Publix in Miami ¯ only an estimated 3 percent

lamb.

In downtown Boston at that Wollaston¢s store, the pork

and

lamb accounted for approximately 14-and-half percent.

At

Market Basket in Boston, there was an estimated 24

percent

pork in the ground beef. And at that Chicago Butera

store?

The ground beef that was supposed to be 100 percent

pure

had an estimated 36 percent pork in it.

None of the stores would appear on camera, but

all of

them say they reinforced store policy against the

practice.

Wollaston¢s in Boston has now bought a separate grinder

since we told them of our test results. Three stores

have

hired their own outside labs to do tests for mixed

meats and

the results, they say, have all been good.

The Chicago Butera foods where we found 36

percent

pork in the ground beef? The store¢s officials say

there is *no

incentive to mix pork with our ground beef... because

pork

can bring a higher price.* They added, test results are

*unexplainable and intolerable.*

Two stores, Publix and Treasure Island asked the

Food

Marketing Institute ¯ a Washington-based lobbying group

¯

to respond for them. *When one species of meat are

found in

another species... there is no health and safety

issue... it¢s

really a labeling issue,* says FMI¢s Jill

Hollingsworth.

But the USDA says mixing meats is an

on-the-record

health hazard. Some meats need to be cooked at a higher

temperature than others.

Lea : *Well, we know of at least one man

who died because pork was mixed with the ground beef.

He

got trichinosis, not something you would expect to have

to

look out for in ground beef.*

Jill Hollingsworth: *That product was perfectly

safe,

or would have been had it been properly handled and

cooked.

This was a tragic event but nevertheless the message

that we

want to be sure your viewers understand ¯ if cooked to

160

[degrees] ¯ then all meats are safe.*

There is some good news in *Dateline¢s* 1999

ground

beef test, especially when you look at the final count.

Remember, last year it was 29 out of 100 stores

that

sold us mixed meat. Of the 100 samples of ground beef

we

purchased this year a total of just seven stores sold

us

adulterated ground beef that wasn¢t pure. A dramatic

improvement! So maybe Dateline¢s story last year did

have

some impact. But our story doesn¢t end here.

We also decided to look for something else,

other

potential dangers in the ground meat you buy. Some you

probably know about, but one in particular, you may

not. It¢s

something the government prohibits in your hot dogs...

so

why not in your hamburgers?

It seems a month doesn¢t pass by these days

without

another recall on meat. Only 10 years ago, almost no

one had

heard of e.coli. Then 700 people became ill and four

children

died after eating fast food hamburgers.

As a result, the federal government now has a

zero-tolerance policy for the deadly bacteria. If it is

found in

ground beef, it has to be recalled and the origin of

the beef is

urgently traced.

We tested beef samples we bought at 100 grocery

stores around the country for that dangerous e.coli. We

were

relieved we didn¢t find any.

But there¢s another bacteria that has food

regulators

worried. It may not cause the number of illnesses that

e.coli

does, but for those who get sick from it, they stand a

much

higher risk of dying.

It¢s called listeria, and lately, listeria ¯

like e.coli ¯ has

been making headlines.

There was a recall last year not from listeria

in ground

beef, but from listeria in hot dogs and other packaged

meats.

Lots of people got sick, like Moul. Five

and a

half months pregnant, she was rushed to the hospital

with a

fever of 103. She knew something was terribly wrong.

Moul: *I¢m really scared that I¢m gonna

lose the

baby at this point, and the fever just kept getting

higher and

higher.*

And things got worse:

*The contractions started,* Moul said. *And I

started

experiencing a lot of contractions.* She was giving

birth, four

months premature.

*I was going into delivery,* Moul said, *and I

delivered

Hope Pearl, and I couldn¢t stop her from coming.*

The baby didn¢t make it. She only lived 10

minutes. At

first everyone was baffled by the tragedy. Then

remembered the recall of hot dogs. It was about a week

before she got sick. She says the recalled product was

the

same kind she had eaten.

*When Hope was delivered, never ever thought

that I

would connect it back to my baby dying over hot dogs,*

Moul

said.

That listeria outbreak in hot dogs killed more

than 20

people. Another hundred got sick ¯ and because listeria

attacks a fetus, a half dozen babies, like Hope Pearl,

were

miscarried, born dead or lived only a short while.

So now the government must figure out what to do

about

listeria in pre-cooked meat, like hot dogs and cold

cuts. The

government is already warning that for those most

vulnerable

¯ children, the elderly and pregnant women ¯ pre-cooked

meats should be cooked again before they are eaten. But

it

turns out, listeria is not only found in pre-cooked

meat. Like

e.coli, it can also be found in raw ground beef.

Ron Snitzer runs Sani-Pure labs. For the past 40

years,

Sani-Pure has tested for bacteria in meat.

Snitzer: *Listeria causes a pretty severe

food-borne

illness and could potentially have some severe

ramifications.*

Lea : *Deaths?*

Snitzer: *Not common but it certainly has

occurred.*

Sani-Pure does extensive testing for bacteria

like listeria

for supermarkets and local governments. It has to

follow

federally approved methods to conduct those tests.

Snitzer: *Listeria can live pretty well under

refrigeration. Lives very well in humid environments.*

Humid and cold environments are just the kind of

places

where ground beef is made. That¢s why some meat

processors like Costco, which makes more than a million

pounds of ground beef a week, make a point of testing

for

listeria.

Craig is Costco¢s safety director.

: *We do environmental listeria testing in

our

facility and we think that¢s very important. Listeria¢s

a very

ubiquitous organism.*

And that means the bug can be found just about

anywhere as the meat makes its way from the farm to the

processing plant and eventually to stores.

All through the process, listeria can

potentially

contaminate beef. That¢s why at Costco, workers

sterilize the

machinery every morning and run tests throughout the

day.

Would any of the ground beef samples we bought

around the country turn out to have listeria?

We hired Ron Snitzer and Sani-Pure to do the

testing.

To avoid any potential contamination as we handled the

meat,

he instructed us to keep the samples below 40 degrees.

To

keep them sanitary, we washed our hands with

bacteria-killing soap. Then we put on fresh latex

gloves.

We used separate sterile scoops to transfer the

meat

into sterile bags and marked each sample with a unique

number so the lab wouldn¢t know which store the ground

beef came from.

We had purchased ground beef at three Costco

stores

¯ how did they do? The verdict from the lab was good.

No

listeria.

But the lab did find listeria at other grocery

stores...

In downtown Philadelphia, we found listeria in a

ground

beef sample from a Superfresh supermarket. A few miles

away, beef with listeria at an ACME store.

In San Francisco, two more samples tested

positive for

listeria ¯ one from a Cala-Foods store and a few blocks

away at a Safeway.

In land, ground beef from a Food Lion store

tested

positive for listeria.

And in Dallas, Texas, we found it in beef

purchased at a

Kroger Supermarket. Lab director Snitzer confirmed that

seven out of the hundred samples of ground beef we

purchased nationwide tested positive for listeria.

Lea : *Were you surprised at how much

listeria you found in these samples?*

Ron Snitzer: *Once we actually recovered close

to 10

percent, yeah then I become a little surprised.*

Remember, the government appeared very concerned

when listeria turned up in precooked meat. So as soon

as we

learned that some of the beef we tested contained

listeria, we

notified the stores involved.

We got a response from Jill Hollingsworth, a

former

USDA official who works on food safety programs at the

Food Marketing Institute, an association of

supermarkets.

*We know that meat is not sterile, it¢s a raw product

from

animals and there will be occurrences when you find

listeria,*

Hollingsworth says.

All seven stores where we found listeria in

ground beef

are members of FMI and all asked that FMI speak on

their

behalf.

Hollingsworth says listeria is everywhere in the

environment, but contends it is rarely found in food.

Lea : *You say it doesn¢t happen very

often,

but we found it in seven percent of the beef we

bought.*

Jill Hollingsworth: *And I think those numbers

are

consistent with numbers that have been done in much

larger

studies than what you have done ¯ surveys by the

government where they have found listeria occurring in

raw

food products. That is one of the reasons why there is

so

much effort being placed right now on the campaigns to

teach consumers about cooking properly.*

: *Tell us what¢s happened in those

stores

where we found listeria.*

Hollingsworth: *Well, those stores have taken

extra

steps recleaning, resanitizing to make sure that the

environment is as absolutely close to sterile as we can

get it.*

So how did the USDA respond? The agency declined

a

request by *Dateline* to do an interview. Instead it

sent us a

letter saying because it is now studying the problem it

did not

want to discuss policy-making on television.

The government did tell us not to worry. Like

the

grocery store association, it feels consumers can take

care of

listeria if they just cook their meat to 160 degrees.

But we were confused ¯ if the USDA allows

absolutely no e.coli in ground beef, which it says is

killed

when hamburger meat is cooked, why is it there are no

standards for listeria in ground beef?

Sen. Tom Harkin: *It doesn¢t make sense to me

whatsoever.*

Senator Tom Harkin is the ranking Democrat on

the

Senate Agriculture Committee.

Lea : *Hot dogs are regulated for

listeria,

but hamburger meat, ground beef is not. Why not?*

Harkin: *They can get sick and die from eating

hamburgers just as easy as they could from eating a hot

dog.

It¢s a distinction without a difference.*

But the food industry and the USDA say there is

a big

difference. They say hot dogs and lunch meats are

pre-cooked to kill dangerous bacteria. So consumers

assume

they¢ll be safe.

But they say everyone should know that it¢s not

safe to

eat raw ground beef. It must still be cooked. So there

is no

need to regulate listeria in ground beef.

And there¢s this: Every year, an average of 400

people

die from listeria, not just in hot dogs but also in

other

ready-to-eat foods like cheese, ice cream and spreads.

But according to the Centers for Disease

Control, there

have been no reported cases of sickness or death from

listeria in ground beef.

But Caroline Dewaal, head of food safety

with the

consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the

Public

Interest, counters, *That¢s what they said before we

had

major outbreaks linked to the deadly e.coli bacteria.*

Lea : *The USDA and the food industry

certainly would say to you, ¡but we haven¢t had any

deaths,

we haven¢t had any outbreaks, so what¢s the big deal

here?¢*

Dewaal: *Listeria is a very serious human

pathogen.

And we shouldn¢t have to wait for deaths and illnesses

to

occur.*

Lea : *You¢re a food advocate. Many

people say that CSPI is alarmist... is this something

people

really need to worry about?*

Dewaal: *Consumers don¢t want to get sick from

their

food. Sitting down to a meal shouldn¢t be an issue of

playing

Russian Roulette with your health.*

In the meantime what should people do? Well, as

we

said earlier, the USDA does warn consumers to cook meat

thoroughly.

Last summer at a White House cookout, Secretary

of

Agriculture Dan Glickman proclaimed just what

thoroughly is.

*Hamburger is not well done until it hits 160 degrees,*

Glickman said. How do you know when meat reaches 160

degrees? The USDA recommends using a meat

thermometer.

Lea : *The USDA says that if people just

cook their meat to 160 degrees we won¢t have a

problem.*

Sen. Tom Harkin: *I¢m all for consumer

education.

We have to get information out to consumers about

cooking

ground beef. But that doesn¢t answer it.*

: *Do you use a meat thermometer when

you

cook hamburgers? Fess up now....*

Harkin: *Nah, I really don¢t.*

: *Do you think anybody else does?*

Harkin: *No, no, they don¢t.*

Lea : *You say cooking ground beef will

make it safe, but doesn¢t that put all the pressure on

the

consumer?*

Jill Hollingsworth: *No it doesn¢t. What we are

asking

the consumer, though, is that they play a part in this

food

safety team. We are doing all we can to reduce and

eliminate

bacteria ¯ particularly the pathogen harmful kind.*

Some supermarkets are trying to help. They have

started

selling thermometers right where they display ground

beef.

Some other companies, like Costco, are making those

cooking

instructions more noticeable.

Costco¢s Craig says his company adds *a

very

large, bright Day-Glo label. So if we¢re cooking that

to 160

degrees* and if by chance there¢s listeria there, that

listeria¢s going to go away.*

But out of the 100 labels we collected in our

ground beef

survey, only seven told consumers about that 160 degree

temperature. Three of them were Costco¢s. All of them

did

have the government¢s mandated handling instuctions.

But on

almost all of them, the writing is in fine print.

Sen. Tom Harkin: *There¢s no reason, absolutely

no

reason, that we can¢t get up a system with tough

standards

and with adequate testing to make sure consumers know

that

when they buy that meat, it doesn¢t have listeria in

it.*

and Moul, who lost their baby

because

of listeria in hot dogs, support any move that will

help keep

food safe. *I would be very concerned if listeria is in

hamburger meat,* Moul says. *You know, I hope I

can have another baby, but you know it¢s scary to think

about

this happening again.*

The USDA wrote us in their letter that the food

supply

in this country is the safest in the world, but it did

say that in

doing a risk assessment with the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration about the problem, it wants to resolve

*whether listeria in raw product poses a threat to

public

health.*

Again, to make sure your ground meat is safe,

and free

of harmful bacteria, you need to cook it to the proper

160

degrees for ground beef, pork and lamb, and 165 degrees

for

ground poultry.