E-coli Testing Expands - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

New testing ensures no e-coli is lurking in your meat.

This week the USDA started testing beef trimmings for 6 new strains of e-coli.

Until, now the industry has only been testing for one strain.

Andrea Grondahl is the head of the North Dakota meat inspection program.

Grondahl say soon both federal and state meat inspectors will soon be testing for those strains in other beef products. 

(Andrea Grondahl / ND Meat Inspection) "They are very dangerous because it only takes a small number of these bacteria to make people sick. And in addition to having a higher prevalence in the products, human disease is on the increase too because of these bacteria."

Grondahl says the elderly and the very young are at the greatest risk..

She says the most important thing you can do to protect yourself from any e-coli is make sure you are thoroughly washing food products, avoiding cross contamination, and cooking meat to 160 degrees.