�A research team headed by Kansas State University E. coli O157:H7 expert T.G. Nagaraja has been tapped by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study both the connectedness between feeding distillers' grains and E. coli 0157:H7 in kine and several strategies to reduce the presence of the naturally occurring pathogen in the animals.
The radical has received a $939,220 National Research Initiative in Food Safety grant. Nagaraja, a university distinguished professor of microbiology, aforesaid the military issue of kernel safety is receiving full attention from both researchers and the meat industry and is being addressed.
"This research project will greatly enhance our understanding of the take relationship between dietary distillers' grains and E. coli 0157:H7 in cattle, as well as provide us with an opportunity to look at novel slipway to palliate the potential risks of feeding this valuable co-product," Nagaraja said.
Distillers' grains ar a by-product of grain alcohol produced from cereal grains that are used in cattle fertilize. They ar rich in fiber, vigour and protein.
The research team will search at shipway to reduce the amount of E. coli O157:H7 present, such as administering a probiotic microflora, an experimental vaccine and feeding john Brown seaweed, a plant shown to have an effect in reducing E. coli O157:H7 prevalence in oxen. In summation, they too will study whether eating varied amounts of the distillers' grain or devising it dry or wet has an effect on the prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 detected in the feces.
Along with Nagaraja, the enquiry team includes K-State professors David Renter, Mike Sanderson and Dan Thomson, and doctoral student Megan Jacob.
The grant builds upon the long history of K-State researchers focus on food safety. An example of that exercise that has direct application to the consumer comes from sum scientist Melvin Hunt.
"Despite aid in solid food processing and provision, there is a possibility that food throne become contaminated with potentially harmful bacterium," Hunt said. "Occasional recalls of potentially contaminated undercoat beef in recent eld are a sign that safety checks are working -- hamburger lovers do not demand to give up their favorite food."
Consumers need to be mindful that recommendations for cookery ground boeuf have changed. Generations have been brought up to think that when ground beef browns, it's cooked. That's no longer true, Hunt said.
In the mid-1980s, K-State kernel science researchers were asked to study the possibleness of reducing the percentage of fat in ground beef without compromising sense of taste and texture.
As the K-State researchers studied ground kick with differing proportions of fat, they observed how the meats cooked and noted that some ground beef browned prematurely, ahead it had reached the safe-to-eat temperature of one hundred sixty F.
The coloring material of essence depends on the atomic number 8 in the muscle cells, Hunt aforesaid. As an example, he explained that fresh ground beef is bright loss because oxygen is incorporated into the meat as it is ground. As the meat ages, it loses o, which causes the color to change. The atomic number 8 in the muscle is carried by myoglobin, which is similar to hemoglobin that carries oxygen in humans.
Observations during the study prompted researchers to recommend that temperature -- not color -- should be used as a test for doneness, Hunt said.
In a eatery, consumers ar advised to order a ground beef patty cooked to at least medium, or one hundred sixty F. At home, they are advised to train end-point temperature with a meat thermometer.
"Using a meat thermometer is the only sure way to tell if kernel is in good order cooked," Hunt said.
The K-State researchers ar among the more than 150 K-State experts working in the arena of food safety, animal health and agricultural health. More than $70 million has been consecrate to research in these areas since 1999.
Source: T.G. Nagaraja
Kansas State University
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