The last thing the beef industry needs right now is apologists and cheerleaders.

Blaming consumers doesn’t help much either.

Alexander Hrycko wrote the Toronto Star about the creepy crawly recall of beef produced in Saskatchewan because of E. coli O157:H7 to say that “once again the beef industry in Canada is being unfairly targeted.

“Over the past 10 years, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by the beef industry on food safety and the introduction of cleaner processing methods. The results speak for themselves as data from the CDC reveal that in North America, E. coli O157:H7 infections as a result of ground beef have declined 72 per cent from 2000 to 2010 … if consumers were to cook their beef thoroughly then there would be no risk of infection."

Since this Canadian author quotes U.S. statistics (oh, the Alanis irony) he should know the U.S. Department of Agriculture decided in 1994 to stop blaming consumers for E. coli O157:H7 infections; cooking beef thoroughly means using a tip-sensitive digital thermometer; and exquisite care is required to minimize cross-contamination.

The author concludes that “another article instilling fear into consumers is not what the fragile Canadian beef industry needs at this time. This is a fight that the beef-processing industry cannot win despite the fact it continues to better its effort at keeping consumers safe.”

Making people barf is bad for business. Killing them is worse.