Congresswoman Pushes USDA for Answers Regarding 35-Day Lapse in Identifying Cargill as Source of Deadly E. coli Outbreak
This week, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue requesting more information about the current ongoing multistate Escherichia coli outbreak linked to ground beef from Cargill. The outbreak has resulted in 18 illnesses and one death.
DeLauro points out that the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) was notified about a cluster of E. coli illnesses on August 16, 2018. However, it took two weeks (August 30th) for any food product (ground beef sold by Publix Supermarkets) to be recalled. At this time, FSIS noted that the source of the outbreak was “yet to be determined.” Twenty days later on September 19, Cargill recalled 132,606 pounds of ground beef products were finally recalled.