Costco, the fifth largest general retailer in the United States, plans to test the meat before it is mixed with other supplies to make hamburgers.
The United States Department of Agriculture promotes such testing as a way to improve the food safety standards of hamburgers. But some of the nation’s largest slaughterhouses have resisted the proposal. They fear that the discovery of E. coli at one meat grinder would lead to knock-on recalls of beef sent to other grinders, according to a report published in The New York Times.
Costco is said to be one of the few large grinders to test meat for E. coli on arrival at its plant.
