Free Mastering the Craft of Making Sausage by Warren R. Anderson

use chemical additives for processing your sausage products, you should also decide that you will not make smoked sausage. Untreated raw sausage (also called fresh sausage ) can be made, cooked, and eaten safely—even if it is stuffed in casings. However, smoked sausage made without the above-mentioned nitrite may be deadly because, as men- tioned above, the sausage is usually smoked for a long time in the temperature range that encourages spore reproduction and toxin formation.
    E. COLI O157
    I had never heard of this bacterium until the summer of 1996. I was living in Japan then, and it became headline news in that country. Almost 10,000 Japanese became ill, and at least eleven people died. Later, I found out that 700 people suffered the same kind of food poisoning in the U. S. in 1993; they ate undercooked ground beef at a hamburger sandwich chain.
    E. coli O157 is a new strain of the intestinal bacteria that are known collectively as E. coli . Most of these E. coli bacteria are either harmless or cause temporary intestinal discomfort and diarrhea. However, one of them acquired genes that enabled it to cause severe illness in human beings. In 1982, U. S. scientists isolated it and labeled this new strain. They called it Escherichia coli O157:H7 ( E. coli O157 is an abbreviation of the technical name).
    Food poisoning caused by  E. coli  O157 is much more severe than that caused by salmonella food poisoning, and it is very difficult for doctors to treat; antibiotics can worsen the condition. Symptoms appear several days after consuming the contaminated food.
    In a technical report published in March of 1995, it is reported that there are a minimum of 20,000 cases of  E. coli  O157 infection each year, and about 250 of these cases result in death.
    Continuing research will clarify much of the mystery surrounding this new health threat, but there are some useful facts available at this time. It appears that non-chlorinated water and almost any food can become contaminated with  E. coli  O157 bacteria, but meat—particularly beef—deserves special attention. About 1 percent of healthy cattle have  E. coli  O157 in their intestines. Improper slaughtering can cause contamination of the meat. If this contaminated meat touches other meat or other food—directly or indirectly—contam-ination can spread.
    One outbreak of  E. coli  O157 infection is especially important for the home sausage maker. From November 16 through December 21, 1994, there were twenty cases of  E. coli  O157 infection in the state of Washington, and three more cases were identified in northern California. Investigation and testing confirmed that all cases resulted from eating a certain brand of dry-cured salami purchased from the delicatessen counter of a specific chain grocery store. The suspected product was recalled—all 10,000 pounds.
    The salami involved in this incident was traditionally dry-cured salami. This type of salami is fermented while it is being slowly dried under controlled temperature and humidity conditions. It is never cooked, and it is intended to be eaten raw. The combination of the lactic acid produced by fermentation and the loss of moisture preserves the sausage and kills the harmful microbes. This dry-cure process has had an excellent safety record for hundreds of years. In this case, however, the  E. coli  O157 present in the sausage were not killed.
    Subsequent tests by the USDA have confirmed that  E. coli  O157 can survive the process of fermenting and dry curing. The USDA is currently doing research to develop processing techniques that will insure the destruction of this bacterium in dry-cured sausage. In the meantime, the producers of dry-cured sausage of any variety are being required to validate (prove) that their process results in a sausage that will be safe to eat. Some processors accomplished this by using a longer fermentation process; other processors used thermal treatment. (Thermal treatment means