-
1
Recommendations made on prevention of O157:H7
Thorough cooking of meat at the consumer end remains the most effective way to prevent infection by E.coli O157:H7 since the bacteria can be easily killed at a cooking temperature of 75 degree Celsius.
The advice was given by the Assistant Director of Health, Dr Leung Pak-yin, today (Monday) as he summarised findings of a recent case involving the detection of the bacteria in some minced beef samples taken at a retail outlet.
He said the Department believed that the case was an isolated incident since only two samples from the same retail outlet were found to be contaminated.
"All other forty-three samples/swabs and environmental swabs taken subsequently from the abattoir, wholesaler, and other retail outlets of the same department store had been tested negative."
The second sample tested positive belonged to the batch that had already been voluntarily surrendered and destroyed.
On the possible causes of contamination, Dr Leung said it could take place at the abattoir, during the transportation process and at the wholesaler or retailer levels.
At the abattoir, there was the chance of accidental puncturing of intestines or stomach of cattle by the cutting knife during the slaughtering process and contacts between the cattle's upper offal and lower offal during the handling process.
Cross contamination could also take place at the transportation process and the wholesaler stage due to improper storage of cattle heart, liver and beef together.
At the retailer end, it was likely that the food preparation equipment including the mincing machine had not been cleaned well allowing cross contamination from one batch to the other.
"Although it is recognised world-wide that total elimination of E.coli 0157:H7 from fresh meat is impossible, the Department made a number of recommendations to minimise the chance of such contamination," Dr Leung said.
The recommendations included: