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E. coli in the slaughterhouses and fast food meat
Ecoli is a bacterium known as Escherichia (genius), and Coli (species) and it belongs to Enterobacteriaceace family. The bacterium is found mostly in the fast food from restaurants such as hamburger meat and in many slaughterhouses. The bacterium is commonly found in warm-blooded organisms. It exists as part of normal flora. It has various functions such as vitamin K2 production, and it prevents harmful bacteria in the intestine. This bacterium does not cause harm to the health of a human being except the serotype 0157:H7, which may cause food poisoning thus threatening life. It can cause severe cramps and bloody diarrhea. Ecoli infections pose risk factors to the health thus raising a developing condition or disease such as obesity or diabetes.
Ecoli is common in the nations/global fast food restaurants. According to Schlosser (157) fast food, industries are driven by significant changes in the American society. For instance, MacDonald Corporation is one of the fast food industries that supply food in many parts of the country. Due to fundamental changes in the ways meat is packed and processed into beef in this corporation, many cases of sickness are rampant. The meat industries have endangered workers in the United States because of injuries, which go unrecorded and compensated. This has facilitated the deadly pathogen known as Ecoli 0157:H7 into the hamburger meat for Americans. Schlosser (247) argues that America is becoming an obese nation thus the federal government needs to act quickly on the fast food restaurants. This is because of the change created from standardization, self-service and production line thus contributing to deadly diseases. 80 % of the Americans have been reported with high cases of obesity and diabetes due to consumption of fast food from various industries.
In addition, the research indicates that the Americans spend more money on fast foods than even on higher education. It was discovered that the meat packing industries and fast food restaurants in USA are responsible health problems raised about the nation’s beef (Schlosser (235). Poor sanitation from the slaughter houses are the primary cause of the contamination of the infections. This has led to widespread risks hence there is a need for increased meat inspections before the infection causes more harm globally. Nevertheless, the USDA is now promoting technical solutions to reduce the causes of meat contamination and the way of handling fast food in restaurants. They have tried to implement policies of the way health and safety should be practiced in slaughterhouses as well as fast food restaurants.
Ecoli gets into the meat through contaminating muscle meat during slaughtering of animals. This bacterium lives in the animal’s intestines such as cows. Although some of them are harmless, some types such as serotype 0157:H7 are dangerous. Ecoli is not only limited to meat but also to vegetables that are grown using infected manure or washed with infected water. In the meat, the bacterium transmits to the human body through eating uncooked meat. Sometimes, it is transmitted through touching the meat and then eating without washing hands well. In fact, serotype 0157:H7 infection is consumed when eating any contaminated meat of animals especially cattle such as beef, sausages or unpasteurized milk in fast food restaurants.
Ecoli in the slaughterhouses and fast food restaurant meat affects the state of Texas, USA and other countries globally. It has been estimated that 85 percent of serotype 0157:H7 infections are food borne and they affect many people globally. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that more than two thousand Americans are admitted to hospitals and sixty of them die annually from this infection. The recent research estimated that serotype 0157:H7 illness increased making the federal government spend millions of dollars annually. In addition, the federal health authorities estimated that about 76 million people get sick from eating fast foods, which are contaminated. About 325,000 people are being hospitalized, and 5,000 Americans die annually. The USA continues to experience disease outbreak from E. coli bacterium. This is due to unacceptable contamination levels caused by dirty conditions whereby the animals are raised and from the slaughtering areas.
There are various cases in Texas whereby many people have died because of eating food from fast food restaurants. From the Media Matters for America (2011), many causes for children who have died from obesity have been reported to increase. Obesity has become an epidemic among children in USA. It was reported that in Texas, 2-19 children died every year. For instance, it was approximated that 12.5 million children in 2010 are affected by obesity in Texas, and a considerable number of them died from obesity (Media Matters for America 2011). In 2008, the medical costs for people with obesity in Texas increased because many people were dying from obesity, which was due to high consumption of fast foods. In fact, the number of mortality level increased from 2000 and in 2001, the U.S health care recorded high cases of premature deaths. This has been increasing in every year thus the federal government is now spending more cost on the health care system.
In conclusion, Ecoli 0157:H7 is one of the deadly organisms that pose risk factors to the health thus raising developing diseases such as obesity or diabetes. The bacterium is common in the nations/global fast food restaurants such as MacDonald restaurants and many other American meat-processing industries. The bacterium gets into the meat through contaminating muscle meat during slaughtering of animals. Americans spends more money on fast foods than in any other activities. It has affected many people locally, nationally and globally. Thus, many people have been hospitalized while others have died because of eating contaminated meat from fast food restaurants.
Work Cited
Media Matters for America. “Hannity Denies The Existence Of Food Deserts In America.”
Media Matters for America. November 16, 2011. Web. December 6, 2011. <http://mediamatters.org/research/201111160020>.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 2001. Print.
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