Publicity on food contamination due to Escherichia coli and other pathogens has catapulted the bacterium E. coli in a bad light. However, it must be also known to public that Escherichia coli is found everywhere and there are only specific serotypes of the bacteria which are classified harmful to humans. The serotype E. coli O157:H7—which exhibits O157 and H7 antibodies—has been the main concern of the public because of its association to the 1993 outbreak that resulted to more than 300 cases of food poisoning and 4 deaths. Given this setting, this prompted the Government to seize products containing E. coli O157:H7 and later require food safety and quality control measures (FSIS testing) to all meat processing plants in the US. With the outbreak of six additional serotypes of Shiga toxin producing E. coli (STECs)—strains carrying the anti-bodies O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, and O145—the government requires meat processing plants to address the presence of these pathogens and improve their testing methods (Buzby and Ferrier, 228).
The Shiga toxin produced by E. coli O157:H7 lives innocuously in the gastrointestinal tract of cattle but during slaughter this pathogen can be transmitted to the carcass. This pathogen causes acute and chronic illness which can be transmitted during food ingestion or close contact with other person. There are 63, 153 domestically acquired foodborne illnesses linked to E. coli O157:H7 each year according to the US government. This is tantamount to an estimated $219.9 million in annual health costs (Buzby and Ferrier, 228). Because the pathogen has been categorized under severe food safety hazard this prompts meat packers to adopt test designs to improve food safety. However, adopting test designs may incur some cost which affects food safety investment. Because of the possibility that such test design may not give an accurate result this may be linked to weak incentives. That is, markdowns in products due to test errors may affect the meat market.
Piggott and Marsh (154-174) have investigated how reports of contamination mostly attributed to outbreaks of pathogens—Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonela raised food safety concerns in the US and other parts of the world. They have investigated the effect of publicized food safety concerns to meat consumption in the US over the last decades. US consumers require about 15.2 pounds of beef, 7.3 pounds of pork and 10.4 pounds of poultry in a quarter of a year. The statistics are affected by seasonal factors, time trends and food safety information. Their hypothesis test implies that food safety information has a limited effect on the demand of meat in the US and this effect is concurrent to other factors. Response for food safety elasticity on precommited quantities suggested that publicized food safety information gravely affects the demand of meat products. But the effect of publicized food safety to the economy is relatively small especially when compared to price and previous estimates of health issues related to meat consumptions. Poultry demands are more responsive to food safety as opposed to beef and pork demand. That is, adverse publicity about Salmonella in chicken lowers the demand for the product but the magnitude and duration of the impact spans in a short period of time. Consumers respond differently to food safety and health information. Thus, the timing to inform consumers of unanticipated outbreaks can be a key factor to characterize the differences in demand response (Piggott and Marsh, 154-174).
Works Cited
Ferrier, Peyton and Jean C. Buzby. “The Limits of Food Safety Testing: A case Study of Escherichia coli Testing of Beef Trim.” Review. Food Control, 38 (2014): 227-234. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.10.028. Web.
Piggott, Nicholas E. and Thomas L. Marsh. “Does Food Safety Information Impact U.S. Meat Demand?” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 86.1 (2004): 154-174.
