ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996 TAG: 9607160025
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: reporter's notebook
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN
Last week's unveiling in Washington, D.C., of sweeping changes in meat safety regulations had a special meaning to a Montgomery County family.
Renet Austin's two daughters became ill last year after eating bad hamburger. Mikki Dailey, 9, had diarrhea and cramps. Her then 10-month-old sister, Erica, was more seriously affected. Erica was diagnosed with E. coli 0157:H7, a bacteria carried in undercooked meat that killed four restaurant customers in the Pacific Northwest in 1993.
Scott Austin, Renet Austin's husband, was diagnosed with E. coli also, but never fell seriously ill like his infant daughter, whose diapers yielded blood for a week. The bacteria most seriously affects the elderly and the very young.
Renet Austin was invited to attend ceremonies in Washington last week marking the new safety requirements that included a meeting with Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.
"It was really wonderful," Austin said.
Although the sweeping changes, which The Washington Post says replace a "poke and sniff" inspection system with "science-based quality control" to detect contamination, are a huge step, Austin says it's important "that consumers don't get too complacent."
"It's a step in the right direction but you certainly can't guarantee there's nothing in food again," she said.
Consumers have to remember to cook meat thoroughly and to wash their hands before and after preparation.
Austin said Glickman "was extremely sincere in really wanting to get this done."
Keys to the new regulations are sanitation processes at slaughterhouses and consumer awareness when you get it home.
"The technology's there. It was just a matter of revamping things," Austin said. "It's time. It was time for a change after 90 years."
Most larger companies already have the technology in place to make the changes, "it's just a matter of implementing" it. Smaller meat companies will have 42 months to comply.
Austin said that as she researched E. coli and looked for answers, she turned to the Internet, where she found Safe Tables Our Priority, an organization that helps guide people to information, testing and other steps to take.
Austin still hopes to see more changes. She said Virginia reports E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks to the federal Centers for Disease Control, but not individual cases.
"How does anybody know if there's an outbreak if individual cases are not reported?" she asked.
One supplier could send meat to several different restaurants and grocery stores and with today's mobile society, it's important that a better tracking system is implemented, she said.
Being in Washington surrounded by other families who had been more deeply affected by the bacteria than her family was "very sobering," Austin said.
"There I was with my healthy 20-month-old and there was an awful lot of parents there who didn't have kids with them because they're dead."
For more information from Safe Tables Our Priority (STOP), call 1-800-350-STOP.
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