Government Efforts to Minimize E. Coli Infection
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched several
programs to protect the public from the risk of infection with disease-causing
strains of
E. coli, such as O157:H7. Its efforts include:
- Sponsoring research to find ways to prevent
cattle from carrying the bacteria, including efforts to develop a vaccine for
cattle.
- Developing improved methods of detecting the bacteria to
keep them out of meat-packing plants.
- Making the time and
temperature controls in meat-processing plants more
strict.
- Requiring that all raw and partially cooked meat and
poultry products have safe handling instructions on the
package.
- Requiring warning labels on unpasteurized fruit and
vegetable juices.
- Developing stricter regulations for fruit and
vegetable juice processing.
Also, state and local health departments are working with the
USDA to decrease the number of outbreaks of infection and to limit the extent
of outbreaks when they occur.
Credits
| By | Healthwise Staff |
| Primary Medical Reviewer | E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine |
| Specialist Medical Reviewer | W. David Colby IV, MSc, MD, FRCPC - Infectious Disease |
| Last Revised | May 29, 2012 |