Scientists study possible link between distillers grains, E. coli

Food & Drink Weekly, Feb 4, 2008

A nationwide surge in beef recalls has pointed the finger at an unlikely culprit: the nation's fuel ethanol industry. Studies at two universities suggest that feeding cattle a byproduct of ethanol production known as distillers grains may increase levels of a deadly form of E. coli bacteria. Concerned about those findings, USDA scientists have recently put 300 cattle on a diet of distillers grains and are testing them regularly for the bacteria. Results won't be known until later this year.

Cattle producers and the ethanol industry both have a lot at stake in the research. The increased use of corn for ethanol has driven up the cost of grain for livestock feed. But the availability of cheaper distillers grains has offset the impact of those higher corn prices on livestock producers while providing a valuable revenue stream to ethanol plants. Production of distillers grains has soared along with the growth of ethanol. About a third of the corn that goes to an ethanol plant is turned into distillers grains.

Meatpackers recalled a record 33.4 million pounds of beef last year for possible E. coli contamination, up from just 181,900 pounds in 2006, according to the USDA. The old record of 25.6 million pounds was set in 1997.

USDA's under secretary for food safety, Richard Raymond, said he thinks distillers grains are one of several factors behind the spike in recalls. "There is just something different" going on, he said in an interview last week in Arlington, Va., where he was attending a special industry conference on the E. coli problem.