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The 1992-1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak occurred when 732 people were infected with the Escherichia coli O157:H7 bacterium originating from undercooked beef patties in hamburgers.[1][2][3] The outbreak involved 73 Jack in the Box restaurants in California, Idaho, Washington and Nevada and has been described as "far and away the most infamous food poison outbreak in contemporary history."[4][5][6] The majority of the victims were children aged under 10 years old.[7][1] Four children died and 178 other victims were left with permanent injury including kidney and brain damage.[8][9][10]
The wide media coverage and scale of the outbreak was responsible for "bringing the exotic-sounding bacterium out of the lab and into the public consciousness" but was not the first E. coli O157:H7 outbreak resulting from undercooked patties. The bacterium had previously been identified in an outbreak of food poisoning in 1982 (traced to undercooked burgers sold by McDonald's restaurants in Oregon and Michigan) and prior to the Jack in the Box incident there had been 22 documented outbreaks in the United States resulting in 35 deaths.[11]
Sources[]
On January 12, 1993, Phil Tarr, then a pediatric gastroenterologist at the University of Washington and Seattle's Children's Hospital, filed a report with the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) about a perceived cluster of children with bloody diarrhea and Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) likely caused by E. coli O157:H7.[12] Tarr contacted John Kobayashi, the Washington State Epidemiologist, who started the epidemiological trace-back, linking these cases to undercooked hamburger patties. Dr. Kobayashi recalled the conversation in an interview: "I knew that, when Phil called me,...for him to say, 'this is something that I've never seen before,' that was a big red flag."[13]
Health inspectors traced the contamination to Jack in the Box's Monster Burger, which had been on a special promotion (using the slogan "So good it's scary!") and sold at a discounted price.[11][14] The ensuing high demand "overwhelmed" the restaurants' food-safety protocols, such that the patties were not cooked long enough or at a high enough temperature to kill the bacteria.[15]
On Monday, January 18, 1993, DOH officials went public with an announcement about the source of the O157 outbreak at the state lab. After that press conference, Jack in the Box agreed to stop serving hamburgers and to quarantine the meat patties.[13] Two days later, on the same day of President Bill Clinton's inauguration, a powerful storm swept through the Puget Sound area (Seattle and King County). The storm ravaged the area, knocking out power for thousands of residents across three counties, with some living in the dark for five days. The power outage impacted restaurants' proper cooking temperatures and safe refrigeration temperatures and even hindered thorough hand-washing – all critical factors in preventing foodborne illnesses.[13]
At a 1993 press conference, the president of Foodmaker (the parent company of Jack in the Box) blamed Vons Companies, the supplier of their hamburger meat, for the E. coli epidemic. However, Jack in the Box knew about but disregarded Washington state laws which required burgers to be cooked to 155 °F (68 °C), the temperature necessary to completely kill E. coli. Instead, it adhered to the federal standard of 140 °F (60 °C). Had Jack in the Box followed the state cooking standard, the outbreak would have been prevented, according to court documents and experts from the Washington State Health Department.[16]
The subsequent investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified five slaughterhouses in the United States and one in Canada as "the likely sources of ... the contaminated lots of meat."[17] In February 1998, Foodmaker agreed to accept $58.5 million from Vons and eight other beef suppliers to settle the lawsuit, which had been initiated in 1993.[18]
A total of 171 people required hospitalization.[19] The majority of those who presented symptoms and were clinically diagnosed (but not hospitalized) were children under 10 years old.[20][21]
Of the infected children, 45 required hospitalization – 38 had serious kidney problems and 21 required dialysis.[22]
Legacy[]
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), addressing a congressional hearing on food safety in 2006, described the outbreak as "a pivotal moment in the history of the beef industry."[23] James Reagan, Vice President of Research and Knowledge Management at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), said that the outbreak was "significant to the industry" and "the initiative that moved us further down the road [of food safety] and still drives us today."[24] David Acheson, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Associate Commissioner for Foods, in 2015 told Retro Report that "Jack in the Box was a wakeup call to many, including the regulators. You go in for a hamburger with the kids and you could die. It changed consumers' perceptions and it absolutely changed the behaviors of the industry."[25]
As a direct result of the outbreak:
- E. coli O157:H7 was upgraded to become a reportable disease at all state health departments.[26]
- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) increased the recommended internal temperature for cooked hamburgers from 140°F to 155°F.[4][26]
- The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) introduced safe food-handling labels for packaged raw meat and poultry retailed in supermarkets, alongside an educational campaign alerting consumers to the risks associated with undercooked hamburgers[4][26]
- The FSIS introduced testing for E. coli O157:H7 in ground meat.[4]
- The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reclassified E. coli O157:H7 as an adulterant in ground beef.[8]
- The USDA introduced the Pathogen Reduction and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (PR/HACCP) program.[4][8][27]
- The NCBA created a task force to fund research into the reduction of E. coli O157:H7 in cattle and slaughterhouses.[4]
- Jack in the Box completely overhauled and restructured their corporate operations around food safety priorities, setting new standards across the entire fast food industry.[24]
- Roni Rudolph, whose daughter Lauren was one of the four children who had died in the outbreak, and many other parents of affected children formed STOP Foodborne Illness (formerly Safe Tables Our Priority, or S.T.O.P.), a national non-profit organization dedicated "to prevent[ing] Americans from becoming ill and dying from foodborne illness" by advocating for sound public policy, building public awareness, and assisting those impacted by foodborne illness.[28]
- Parents of the affected children played key roles in spreading awareness and advocating for change – speaking directly to President Bill Clinton, meeting with Vice President Al Gore, testifying before the Clinton Healthcare Task Force, working with the Secretary of Agriculture, and discussing food safety issues with lawmakers in Washington, D.C.[29][30]
- Darin Detwiler, who lost his son, Riley, to E. coli-caused hemolytic–uremic syndrome during the outbreak, later served as a regulatory policy advisor to the USDA for meat and poultry inspection. Detwiler became a professor of Food Policy and the Director of Regulatory Affairs of Food and Food Industry at Northeastern University.[31] In 2018, 25 years after his son's death in the outbreak, Dr. Detwiler received the Food Safety Magazine "Distinguished Service Award" for 25 years of contribution to food safety and policy.[32]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Schlosser, Eric (2001). Fast Food Nation. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780141006871.
- ↑ Nestle, Marion (2 July 2010). Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety (2nd Revised ed.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520266063.
- ↑ Other big E.Coli outbreaks. South Wales Echo (Cardiff). 11 March 2008. p. 9. ProQuest document ID 342321106.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Golan, Elise; Roberts, Tanya; Salay, Elisabete; Caswell, Julie; Ollinger, Michael; Moore, Danna (April 2004). "Food Safety Innovation in the United States: Evidence from the Meat Industry". Agricultural Economic Report (United States Department of Agriculture) (831).
- ↑ Hanlon, Michael (21 May 2001). "The making of a modern plague". Daily Mail (London). p. 30. ProQuest document ID 321207886.
- ↑ Denn, Rebekah (13 May 2011). "Poisoned author Jeff Benedict examines the current state of food safety in the US". The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA). Retrieved 8 July 2013.
- ↑ Hunter, Beatrice Trum (2009). Infectious Connections. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications. ISBN 9781591202448.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Roberts, Paul (2008). The End of Food. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9780747588818.
- ↑ Rogers, Lois (16 April 1995). "Killer in beef spreads alarm". The Times (London). p. 1. ProQuest document ID 318273338.
- ↑ Sylvester, Rachel (11 June 1995). "Children risk death from burger bug". The Sunday Telegraph (London). p. 9. ProQuest document ID 309266408.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Drexler, Madeline (23 December 2009). Secret Agents: The Menace of Emerging Infections (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780143117179.
- ↑ McNamara, Ann Marie. "John H. Silliker Lecture: Heroes: Past and Future" (PDF). IAFP Journal for Food Protection. International Association for Food Protection.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Detwiler, Darin (2020). Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions (1st ed.). Cambridge, MA: Elsevier Academic Press. ISBN 9780128182192.
- ↑ Manning, Shannon D. (April 1, 2010). Escherichia coli Infections (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 9781604132533.
- ↑ Green, Emily. "The Bug That Ate The Burger", Los Angeles Times, June 6, 2001.
- ↑ "Jack in the Box Ignored Food Safety Regulations, Court Documents Say", The Spokesman-Review Co., June 17, 1995.
- ↑ Davis, M. (April 16, 1993). "Update: Multistate Outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Infections from Hamburgers – Western United States, 1992–1993". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 42 (14). p.258-263.
- ↑ "Jack in the Box gets $58 mil in E. coli case", Hawaii, Inc., February 25, 1998.
- ↑ "Food Safety and the Civil Justice System", American Association for Justice.
- ↑ Hunter, Beatrice Trum (2009). Infectious Connections. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications. ISBN 9781591202448.
- ↑ Schlosser, Eric; Wilson, Charles (2006). Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780618593941. p.180.
- ↑ Huemer, Richard P.; Challem, Jack (1997). The Natural Health Guide to Beating Supergerms. New York: Simon & Schuster|Pocket Books. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-671-53764-7.
- ↑ Food Safety: Current Challenges and New Ideas to Safeguard Consumers: Hearing Before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, United States Senate, 109th Cong. 76 (15 November 2006) (statement of Senator Dick Durbin).
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Andrews, James (11 February 2013). "Jack in the Box and the Decline of E. coli". Food Safety News (Seattle, WA). Retrieved 8 July 2013.
- ↑ Chasing Outbreaks: How Safe Is Our Food?. Retro Report (May 10, 2015).
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Benedict, Jeff (16 May 2011). Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat. Buena Vista, VA: Inspire Books. ISBN 9780983347804.
- ↑ Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Systems, 61 Fed. Reg. 38806 (1996).
- ↑ "Name Change for Food Safety Advocacy Group STOP", Food Safety News, April 21, 2011.
- ↑ "Darin Detwiler: He Lost Son To E. coli, Now Is Hellbent On Making It To Olympia", The Seattle Times, January 9, 1994.
- ↑ "E. coli Victim Leaves Legacy Of Awareness", February 25, 1993.
- ↑ USDA Press Release No. 0186.04: Veneman Names New Member to National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection. USDA Office of Communications.
- ↑ Detwiler to Receive Food Safety Magazine Distinguished Service Award – Food Safety Magazine (June 1, 2018).