Lives, Lies & Laws: E. coli and the Meatpacking Industry

Living in an industrialized and modern society, many people disregard even the slightest possibility of a deadly bacterium within the meat which many eat on a daily basis both from fast-food chains and from packages they buy from the supermarket. Unfortunately, a harmful form of the E. coli bacterium is widely spread within the meatpacking industry through a lack of hygiene and proper testing, a problem which is further exacerbated by lies amongst executives amongst the meatpacking industry and will likely only be fixed once harsher and more direct methods of controlling hygiene and sanitation within meatpacking companies are introduced on a federal level. E. coli is a bacterium (a type of prokaryotic cell) which is widely spread as a beneficial cell, especially in human digestive processes, although a shiga toxin-producing form of E. coli (E. coli 0157:H7) unfortunately has disastrous effects on many people, including death, every year, and is largely prevalent due to lack of hygiene either in home settings or in commercial treatment of meats – with especially high levels of this mutant form of the beneficial E. coli found within meatpacking plants.

Unfortunately, often due to difficult working conditions in meatpacking factories and a lack of education regarding hygiene measures, many workers in meatpacking plants unintentionally cause contamination of meat with E. coli 0157:H7. Conditions in meatpacking companies have fortunately improved over time, but the conditions in meatpacking plants in the early 20th century help in expressing the setbacks in terms of hygiene seen in meatpacking plants at the time, many of which still exist. Although using fictional events, Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” includes true facts about the highly dangerous ways in which meat is kept in meatpacking plants before being sent to people throughout the nation. In Sinclair’s novel, he describes “There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor… where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs” (161). Though American society often enjoys thinking that it has progressed beyond the realms of a dark and gloomy industrial society, recent books suggest that unfortunately little change has come in terms of sanitation measures taken in meatpacking plants. In Eric Schlosser’s bestseller “Fast Food Nation,” he describes that disgusting practices including “the tendency of workers to urinate and defecate on the kill floor” which take place on a day-to-day basis in many meatpacking factories (293). These findings suggest that both bad conditions within meatpacking warehouses and negligence in terms of employees who are often not fully trained nor educated regarding basis hygiene measures bear great contributions towards the issues of E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks within factories. Unsanitary conditions within various stages of the meatpacking process have caused outbreaks of E. coli 0157:H7, but unfortunately this has contributed to the habit of overusing antimicrobials designed to fight off E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria. As a result of the overuse of antimicrobial treatments to remedy the problem of E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks by factory workers, “Resistance to one or more antimicrobial agents was observed in 51% of the E. coli [referring specifically to shiga-producing E. coli] isolates recovered from the hides [of Beef]” (Mueen Aslam 1508). This evolutionary process of the E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria means that the only way of changing the issue of E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks on a factory level is by increasing the hygiene level within these factories, especially since further use of antimicrobial agents will not cause some of the most potent E. coli 0157:H7 strains to be stopped from exiting within meat. Throughout the process of meatpacking, issues ranging from workers touching their lunch with the same unwashed hands as those which touch raw meat through to leaving carcasses in an area such that they may be infested with rats has caused contamination of meat sources. Due to the practice of grounding meat and then separating it into smaller packages (and these mixes often containing the remains from many animals at once) a single animal which has been contaminated with a dangerous E. coli strain could cause an entire allotment of packages produced to contain E. coli 0157:H7 within them. In turn, the many sources of possible contamination within meatpacking plants make the chances of meat contamination relatively high. Due to the money-focused and often ill-designed meatpacking factories, combined with low rates of education about hygiene measures in meatpacking plant employees, a lack of hygiene within these plants has unfortunately been the cause of major E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks throughout the United States.

Although the US government attempts to regulate the meatpacking industry through the enforcement of E. coli 0157:H7 tests conducted on a regular basis and by advising recalls when contamination is found, corrupt business officials acting above the layer of the plant itself often resort to lies in order to hide E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks and delay the process of recall. Following the passing of various measures which have allowed for companies to self-assess E. coli 0157:H7 levels and then hand these records to officials with little government interference in the plant itself, many plants turned towards outright faking these results or fabricated results specifically when they noticed E. coli 0157:H7 results increasing, as was the case in the New England Meatpacking Company, LLC owned by Matt Beqiri. In his court case, it was found that a set of documents submitted to the USDA by the company indicated that “all 52 samples tested negative for E. coli [referring to the shiga-producing E. coli strain]” whilst in reality “none of the 52 carcass swabs and samples had been submitted or tested by the identified laboratory, or any other laboratory, and the 36 documents were fraudulently prepared using laboratory letterhead obtained from previous testing” (Department of Justice, “Owner of Connecticut Meat Supplier Admits Fabricating E. Coli Test Results”). Unfortunately, this intentional lying on behalf of and misleading of the USDA FSIS through fake data is relatively common, although identifying incidents of these faked reports (as in the New England Meat Packing LLC) is very tricky when the FSIS often does not test the meat from packing plants themselves and instead rely solely on commercial reports. Unfortunately, the leaders of meatpacking corporations often take even further strides in dishonesty in order to protect their company name and reduce chances of recalls of E. coli 0157:H7 contaminated meat. Since the FSIS and individual corporations sometimes do report incidents of E. coli 0157:H7 contamination (such as through FSIS spot checks in which they complete tests on the site themselves) which reveal E. coli 0157:H7 contamination, the USDA must assist the corporation in issuing a recall. Although recalls are essential in making sure that consumers of contaminated meat are not severely harmed, issuing recalls makes the public question the reliability of meatpacking companies whilst also slowing down company profits. For this reason, in order to satisfy both the USDA and the profit-focused wants of the company, business executives often employ various strategies as general procedures in order to make the tracing of contaminated meat incredibly difficult. In turn, by the time the contaminated products have been identified, it is known that they will have all either been consumed or have gone off, which allows corporations to quickly slip away from the difficulties of complicated recalls. One of the main strategies used by business executives in slowing down the process of recall involves the selling of meat under various misleading labels. For example, Sinclair describes how the meat named “skin hams” were in actuality “made of the oldest hogs, whose skins were so heavy and coarse that no one would buy them” (161). These various acts of purposefully misleading customers make the process of identifying contaminated products much trickier for organisations like the USDA, which in turn inevitably slows down the process of recall. Through the lies which slow down recall processes, highly E. coli 0157:H7 contaminated meat makes its way into many people’s hands, which – for some – is even fatal. Unfortunately, lies on the part of executives who value often value profits over human wellbeing both to reduce the chances of being caught with high E. coli 0157:H7 levels or to reduce the chances of being able to have a full recall are a key component in causing frequent E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks throughout the United States.

Although various laws have been enacted to increase the hygiene levels within meatpacking plants, continuous change is required in order to fully combat the regular E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks which occur due to issues within the meatpacking industry. The most obvious and way in which many government organisations are attempting to regulate the issue of meatpacking involve “quality control checks for meat and poultry,” but this solution is unfortunately not very straightforward (Jonny Lupsha, “Meat-Packing Company Recalls 62,000 Pounds of Beef over E. coli Risk”). In order for these checks of quality to function, regular physical inspection by the USDA would be required at plants (since many meatpacking plants fabricate results), which is unfortunately not feasible due to the cuts in budget experienced by the federal meatpacking program. Therefore, in order for the precautions regarding testing for E. coli 0157:H7 to function, financial change must take place in the funding provided to the USDA for its program to combat E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks from meatpacking factories. However, many scientists have also suggested a more fundamental change within the meatpacking plants themselves as ways of reducing E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks. One key component which could help in reducing E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks from meatpacking plants would be increased hygiene regulations within the factory and better education regarding sanitation measures for employees. By changing where meat is stored and how often these places are cleaned, contamination of meat would be more likely. These measures can be very simple, such as fixing holes in roofs, which often cause leaks to drip onto meat (Upton Sinclair 161). However, employees must also be given more training regarding how to handle meat. Often the workers employed at meatpacking plants have received very little training in this job which can cause life-threatening situations for others: by expanding this training for employees, instances of a lack of hygiene amongst workers would be less common. Although strict testing is certainly an option, training employees would (in the long-term) reduce the costs of constant tests for companies whilst also decreasing the risk of accidentally missing meat contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7. However, likely the most effective measure possible for reducing E. coli 0157:H7 contamination is better workplace conditions for employees. As both Schlosser and Sinclair describe, factory workers at meatpacking plants are given very low wages and are forced to do their tasks at very fast speeds. For this reason, essentials such as leaving the factory belt for the toilet must be done at such speeds that going to the toilet on the factory line itself is often the only option for factory workers. Due to the short times which workers have for meals, they often must use sterilising cabinets as a place to store their food instead of the factory kitchen. The fast pace of the factory, including the rapid speeds of knives at the conveyor belts, often causes factory workers to lose body parts whilst working. All of these practices and injuries contribute to a lack of hygiene within the factories, and E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks throughout the nation. By improving the factory working conditions, meatpacking companies would be able to encourage hygiene and reduce E. coli 0157:H7 within the meat they produce. Together, combining stricter testing, more education for employees, better hygiene and better workplace conditions, meatpacking plants would be able to produce meat which is less likely to contain E. coli 0157:H7 and thereby also less likely to endanger the population.

In conclusion, the E. coli 0157:H7 strain is one which poses a risk to many people throughout the world, and a lack of hygiene within meatpacking plants is a great contributor to several major outbreaks. Unfortunately, activities including issues in the storage and processing of meat together with negligence on the part of company executives cause E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks to be common and make the process of detecting E. coli 0157:H7 and deciding on recalls very tricky. Only by using stricter testing, providing employees with better education regarding hygiene and encouraging better workplace conditions within meatpacking plants will there be an increase in hygiene within the meatpacking plants, which will hopefully help in combatting E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks across the nation.

Works Cited

Aslam, Mueen, and Cara Service. Antimicrobial resistance and genetic profiling of Escherichia coli from a commercial beef packing plant. National Center for Biotechnology Information, 1 Jul. 2006, https://meridian-allenpress-com.stanford.idm.oclc.org/jfp/article/69/7/1508/171251/Antimicrobial-Resistance-and-Genetic-Profiling-of. Accessed 6 Jan. 2022.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outbreak of E. coli Infections Linked to Ground Beef. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 19 June, 2019, https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2019/o103-04-19/index.html. Accessed 7 Jan. 2022.

Department of Justice. Owner of Connecticut Meat Supplier Admits Fabricating E. Coli Test Results. U.S. Attorney’s Office, 20 August, 2019, https://www.justice.gov/usao-ct/pr/owner-connecticut-meat-supplier-admits-fabricating-e-coli-test-results. Accessed 7 Jan. 2022.

Lupsha, Jonny. Meat-Packing Company Recalls 62,000 Pounds of Beef over E. coli Risk. The Great Courses Daily, 29 May, 2019, https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/meat-packing-company-recalls-62000-pounds-of-beef-over-e-coli-risk/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2022.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. Harvard University Press, 1905.