ST. GEORGE, Utah — The day after the Centers for Disease Control announced an E. coli outbreak at locations in 10 states, including Utah, the fast food giant tried to reassure people. That included taking the Quarter Pounder off the menu, at least temporarily.
Utahns are left wondering: What are the risks of eating out?
Shallon Sterner supervises the food inspections for eateries and fast food restaurants in five counties, including the St. George, Kanab and Cedar City areas. He said for fast food restaurants, there are two yearly inspections that make sure that best practices are being followed. In turn, he said managers of those restaurants are trained by the health department to execute those practices.
“The bottom line is, a restaurant cares,” said Sterner, the Southwest Utah Health Department’s environmental health manager. “That's their product. That's the item that they're selling to the consumer. They want that product to be safe.”
At the same time, he said there is a responsibility to make sure those safe practices are being met.
“We want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence in our restaurants, making sure that we're doing proper cooking temperatures,” he said.
While the E.coli outbreak has initially been attributed to raw onions from a supplier for the Golden Arches’ Quarter Pounder, Sterner says on the restaurant side, there’s still some heat that can be put on the bacteria to stop them cold.
“Back in the day when Jack in the Box, we had that outbreak, the cooking temperature was 145 degrees,” Sterner said. “The FDA food code says, no, that's not quite sufficient. We want to make sure that we get to a higher temperature. So we're going to change it to 155 degrees.”
The Centers for Disease Control says severe forms of E. coli like that found in the outbreak will lead to a sour food poisoning stomach for most. But for the very young, the very old and those with weakened immunity, it can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can lead to kidney failure, permanent health problems and even death.
One person in Colorado has died. Of the 49 people in 10 states contaminated, four have been in Utah but none Sterner has seen.
“We're not aware of any cases that are from this current outbreak here in southern Utah,” he said. “I cannot think of any outbreak that we've had of recent years that I could specifically mention or point to.”
David Heaton, Southwest Utah Health Department’s spokesperson, said most E.coli strains are harmless, but there are a few strains that can make people ill.
“You have to realize nothing's completely risk-free,” Heaton said. “There's what's acceptable risk. An outbreak like this, most of us are not going to be affected too much by it. Foodborne illness is actually pretty common.”
Sterner says his health department will regularly inspect fast food establishments twice a year. But they say they’ll come at any time if someone calls their local health department if they think a burger got them sick.
“We want to know those things, and we'll go in and inspect them and make sure that, 'Hey, let's make sure that the temperature is getting to the right temperature,'" he said.
