The Food Safety Inspection Service doubled testing of Canadian meat imports after it was discovered that a probable source of the E. coli outbreak that resulted in the recall of Topps beef patties was a Canadian meat plant. Dr. Richard Raymond, Undersecretary of Agriculture for food safety, says it was important to make sure it was an isolated incident, and is convinced it is safe to bring testing levels back to normal.
"All products tested negative so we felt very comfortable as a result of the audits and increased testing that we could say the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is an equivalent food safety system to ours and the product they are sending to us is very safe for the American public," Raymond says.
However Raymond says using a meat thermometer and cooking ground beef to 160 degrees is the only guaranteed way to kill all bacteria.
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