FOOD IRRADIATION UPDATE
June
17, 2003
Food
Irradiation Update is published by the Minnesota Beef Council
Quotable Quotes:
"It is now up to parents and local school boards to educate
themselves about food irradiation. When they do they will likely want the process
used to enhance the safety of ground beef served to their children." Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, President,
American Council on Science & Health
“My son went from being
perfectly healthy to dead in about 10 days. We felt as if an invisible truck
had run over him." The killer was Escherichia coli O157:H7, a bacterium
that can contaminate ground beef and other meat. (Kevin Kowalcyk’s family
believes that he was killed by a hamburger contaminated with E. coli.) Barbara Kowalcyk of Mount Horeb, Wis.
Food Irradiation: Threat of Food-borne Illness Greater Than Any Risk from Irradiation Health Panel Urges Schools, Parents to Approve Irradiated Meat for School Lunches
National
Cattlemen's Beef Association Position on Inclusion of Irradiated Beef Products
in the School Lunch Program
Unsafe Meat Ended or Tragically
Changed Their Lives
International Meeting for Radiation
Processing to be Held in Chicago September 7-12
Food Irradiation
Education Activities
Food
Irradiation: Threat of Food-borne Illness Greater Than Any Risk from
Irradiation (June 16,
2003); The Times and Democrat via FSNET http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2003/06/16/opinion/opinion.txt
U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Food Safety Elsa Murano
declared, according to this editorial, when her agency announced ratifying
purchase by local school boards for school lunch programs of irradiated cheese,
poultry and red meat, ground or trimmed that, "Protecting the public
from foodborne illness is a priority. Irradiation technology is another tool to
enhance food safety."
The editorial
says that critics have already spoken up since government is ignoring their
beliefs, and that groups opposed to chemical agriculture, nuclear energy and
processed foods, as well as federal oversight of local activities, conform to
frequently followed and long-known special interest tactics nationwide, not
just in Washington. They don't start their preaching with facts. Many of them
deliberately reject fact for not supporting their beliefs. When they stumble
onto fact that they can twist or use to give a belief credibility, they'll
restate it to do so.
The editorial
says we side with the Food and Drug Administration on approval. Evidence tends
to show far more danger from food-borne illnesses than the irradiation aimed at
preventing them.
For example,
studies involving the Centers for Disease Control and others indicate: Treating
raw meat and poultry with irradiation at the slaughter plant could eliminate
bacteria such as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella and Campylobacter. These organisms
currently cause millions of infections and thousands of hospitalizations in the
United States every year. Irradiating ready-to-eat meats, like hot dogs and
deli meats, could eliminate the risk of Listeria from such foods. Irradiation
could also eliminate parasites like Cyclospora and bacteria like Shigella and
Salmonella from fresh produce.
The potential
benefit is also great for those dry foods that might be stored for long times
and transported over great distances, such as spices and grains. Irradiation of
animal feeds could prevent the spread of Salmonella and other pathogens to
livestock through feeds. When irradiation is used, disease-causing germs are
reduced or eliminated, the food does not become radioactive and dangerous
substances do not appear in the foods. The nutritional value and taste are
essentially unaffected.
In a high-tech
world, support for the practice seems sense. And in places of mass feeding such
as schools, using irradiated food is particularly logical.
Health Panel
Urges Schools, Parents to Approve Irradiated Meat for School Lunches
(May 30, 2003) American
Council on Science and Health; from a press release:
http://www.acsh.org/press/releases/lunches060203.html
New York, NY: Specifications for purchase of irradiated ground beef for use in
school lunches, though the decision to order irradiated beef will be made by
local school districts. The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), a
consortium of more than 350 physicians and scientists, urges local school
boards and parents to familiarize themselves with the safety benefits of the
irradiated ground beef that is now available for the National School Lunch
Program.
Irradiation of
red meat was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) late in 1997,
the USDA established rules for its use in 1999, and food processors have been
slowly adopting the process. Recently, a number of large supermarkets, fast
food outlets, and direct mail meat suppliers have begun offering their
customers the choice of irradiated, and therefore
safer, beef.
The use of
irradiation on foods served in the school lunch program is especially
appropriate because young children are among the groups that are particularly
susceptible to serious consequences from consuming E. coli-contaminated foods.
Therefore, parents should be relieved to learn that this technology will now be
available for their children's protection.
Opponents of
irradiation have repeatedly tried to arouse public fears, both of the process
itself and of irradiation facilities, but their claims are without merit.
Irradiation does not significantly affect the nutritional value of the foods
treated, nor does it make food radioactive. Additionally, more than 40
irradiation facilities currently operate safely in towns and cities across the
United States. In these plants radiation is used to sterilize products ranging
from baby-bottle nipples and cream containers to scalpels and surgical gloves.
The safety record of the industry is excellent.
According to
ACSH Director of Nutrition Dr. Ruth Kava, "Some groups urge consumers to
avoid irradiated foods because of purely hypothetical concerns about the
process. We think that consumers should embrace the process because of its
proven ability to improve food safety."
Irradiation has
been approved by both the World Health Organization and the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In the United States, the
American Medical Association, the American Dietetic Association, and the
Institute of Food Technologists, as well as ACSH, endorse the use of
irradiation to supplement the other methods currently used to safeguard our
food supply.
Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, ACSH president stated that, "It is now up to parents and local school boards to educate themselves about food irradiation. When they do they will likely want the process used to enhance the safety of ground beef served to their children."
For more science-based information about irradiation of foods, please see ACSH's recently updated booklet, Irradiated Foods, which can be downloaded from: http://www.acsh.org/publications/booklets/irradiated2003.html
National
Cattlemen's Beef Association Position on inclusion of irradiated beef products
in the school lunch program;
Statement by Terry Stokes, Chief Executive Officer (May 29, 2003):
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) supports the use of
irradiation technologies as one of many safety measures that further improves
the safety of food products.
On May 1, 2003, USDA's Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) announced specifications
that added new process and testing requirements throughout the manufacturing
process for all ground beef items purchased
for the National School Lunch Program. U.S. beef is among the safest in
the world, and these enhanced specifications will ensure this safe product is
being made even safer.
The USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) inspects all meat products,
including those that are irradiated. Only FSIS federally-inspected
establishments and state-inspected facilities that meet the same requirements
specified in the federal regulations are allowed to irradiate meat.
Plants that use irradiation must meet sanitation and Hazard Analysis and
Critical Control Point regulations. Additionally, FSIS conducts microbial
testing to be sure plants are producing wholesome products.
Following the irradiation process, tests will be repeated by AMS to further
verify the beef is safe.
NCBA supports USDA's plan to let each school system decide whether to purchase
and serve irradiated beef products. In addition, NCBA joins USDA in
promoting the importance of communication within the school system and
community, and urging that notification procedures be put in place at the local
level to better inform parents.
"Key points include:
* FDA concluded that irradiation is safe in reducing harmful bacteria and that
it does not compromise the nutritional quality of treated products. The
United Nation's World Health Organization, Codex
Alimentarius Commission, American Medical Association and many other health and
medical organizations have endorsed the process.
* During irradiation, foods are exposed briefly to an ionizing energy source,
such as x-rays or electron beams, to kill bacteria that may otherwise cause
foodborne illness.
* Food irradiation is approved in more than 40 countries around the world and
has long been approved and used for wheat, spices and fresh fruits and
vegetables in the U.S.
* Irradiation complements, but does not replace proper food handling and
cooking practices, and the numerous testing and safeguard measures already in
place."
Unsafe Meat
Ended or Tragically Changed Their Lives; (June 6, 2003) Philadelphia
Inquirer: By Aparna Surendran
PHILADELPHIA: A picture of Kevin Kowalcyk taken in July 2001 shows a cheerful blond
boy, not yet 3 years old, kneeling on a sandy beach. Less than a month later,
he was dead, killed by bacteria that ravaged his internal organs.
"My son went from being perfectly healthy to dead in about 10 days,"
said his mother, Barbara Kowalcyk of Mount Horeb, Wis. "We felt as if an
invisible truck had run over him." The killer was Escherichia coli
O157:H7, a bacterium that can contaminate ground beef and other meat. Kevin's
family believes that he was killed by a hamburger contaminated with E. coli.
Each year in the United States, food contamination causes 76 million illnesses,
325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. The four most common bacteria found
in meat are E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and Campylobacter.
According to estimated figures from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, E. coli accounts for 73,000 illnesses and 60 deaths in the United
States each year. There are 2,500 illnesses and 500 deaths due to Listeria
annually. Salmonella causes 1.4 million illnesses and more than 500 deaths, and
Campylobacter causes 2.4 million illnesses and 124 deaths each year.
Often, the victims remain faceless, nameless casualties of a war that is
largely ignored.
Kevin Kowalcyk is one of those victims. So is 5-year-old Julia Capriotti, who
has cerebral palsy because her mother contracted L. monocytogenes when she was
pregnant. So is Melanie Moul, whose baby died because she contracted Listeria
during pregnancy. So is Raymond Drayton, who was killed by a strain of Listeria
blamed in several other deaths. So is 7-year-old Katelyn Koesterer, who needs a
new pancreas because of an E. coli infection.
These are their stories.
___
On Tuesday, July 31, 2001, when Kevin woke up with a fever and diarrhea, his
mother thought it was a 24-hour bug. By Wednesday, the diarrhea contained
blood, so Barbara Kowalcyk and her husband, Michael, rushed their son to a
Madison, Wis., hospital, where doctors ordered a stool sample and sent Kevin
home. On Thursday, he was admitted to the hospital, and doctors told the family
that the stool sample had tested positive for E. coli.
On Friday, Kevin's kidneys started to fail. "He almost died that
night," his mother remembers. "He went kind of lethargic. He was
cold, but he was sweating." Kevin was transferred to the University of
Wisconsin Children's Hospital. By Saturday morning, his heart was racing at
more than 200 beats a minute, and his blood pressure was very high. He was put
on dialysis and given blood and plasma transfusions. "We couldn't give him
water," his mother says. "He kept asking for water. He asked to go to
the beach and to the pool. He kept asking for a bath."
When she finally gave him a sponge bath, he grabbed the sponge and bit it to
get the water, Kowalcyk said.
"His stomach was distended. His eyes were sunken. His face was
drawn," Kowalcyk said.
Kevin was on dialysis off and on until Tuesday, when he took a turn for the
worse. The E. coli's toxins had gotten into his bloodstream, causing sepsis, an
infection. The doctors put him on a ventilator and continuous dialysis. His
body swelled to almost three times its normal size, and he had to have tubes
inserted into him to drain the fluid from his lungs.
On Saturday, Aug. 11, Kevin's overworked heart stopped beating. Doctors twice
revived him. But before they could put him on a heart and lung machine, his
heart stopped beating for the third, and last, time. Kevin died of gangrene to
his small and large intestines. E. coli had eaten thousands of holes in his
intestines and had clogged the arteries carrying blood to the intestines.
Kevin's grandmother, Patricia Buck, of Grove City, Pa., was in Wisconsin when
he died. "It was the most horrific thing I had to live through," Buck
said. "This is a horrible death for a 2-year-old."
"I (thought) about how much pain he must have had and how scared he must
have been," his mother said recently. "I couldn't do anything about
it."
When Kevin was in the intensive-care unit, Kowalcyk, her husband, and their
daughter Megan, then 5, all were tested by the Dane County Division of Public
Health. But it wasn't until Buck called the department on Sept. 10, almost a
month after Kevin died, that they got the test results: Both Michael and Megan
Kowalcyk had tested positive for E. coli.
To this day, Kowalcyk does not know for sure how her family got sick. A week
before Kevin went to the hospital, the family had hamburger twice, she said.
They had gone to a county fair, where only Kevin, Megan and Michael ate
hamburgers; the second time was a family meal at home.
Kevin's death has transformed his parents into outspoken advocates for tougher
food-safety laws. The U.S. Department of Agriculture lacks the authority to
close plants that exceed limits for bacterial contamination, issue mandatory
recalls or impose civil fines. A bill introduced last year by Sen. Tom Harkin
(D.-Iowa) and set to be reintroduced Thursday would allow the USDA to set
limits for contamination by pathogens such as E. coli. This proposed
legislation has become known as Kevin's Law.
"A lot of times the consumer is blamed. (They say) we don't use hygiene or
cook (meat) properly," Kowalcyk said. "We did everything we were
supposed to. We used separate plates and utensils. I clean sinks and the
counter when I prepare meat. I would wash hot dogs before I cook them! A lot of
our friends were floored because they know how meticulous I am."
Megan is now 7, and the Kowalcyks have an 8-month-old, Lara. The family still
goes to counseling to deal with the grief of Kevin's death, Kowalcyk said.
"Kevin was very gentle," Kowalcyk said. "He would cry easily if
someone else was crying. He was very sweet, and oh, I loved him," Kowalcyk
said. "I was madly in love with Kevin. He was a wonderful little
boy."
___
Dan Capriotti, 42, hoisted his little brown-haired girl up over his shoulder
and back down. Up, down, up, down, as Julia threw her head back and squealed.
When he finally put her down, he held on firmly so that she did not fall.
Julia, 5, who stands about 3 feet tall and weighs 25 pounds, has cerebral
palsy. She can't walk or stand on her own. She has difficulty using her right
hand and needs speech, physical and occupational therapy.
Julia's problems began before she was born. Her mother, Lynn Nowak, was 26 [
weeks pregnant when she began experiencing flu-like symptoms on Sept. 2, 1997.
She had body aches, chills, a 102-degree fever and a terrible headache. By
midnight, she could no longer feel her baby move inside her.
The next day, an ultrasound revealed that the baby had a high heartbeat but was
not moving. Her doctor said the baby most likely had an infection, and they
would have to deliver immediately.
Doctors took out Julia by Caesarean section early the following morning. She
weighed 2 pounds, 2 ounces. She hovered near death; a priest was called to give
the baby last rites.
Julia survived, but her esophagus was torn; she had bleeding in her brain,
which obstructed the flow of cerebrospinal fluid; and she had heart problems.
All of this, the doctors said, was due to something the Capriotti family had never
heard of _ Listeria monocytogenes, a food-borne pathogen associated
particularly with precooked meats. Meat plants usually use steam or high
pressure to kill the bacterium in packaged unsliced deli meats, said Dan
Murphy, vice president of public affairs at the American Meat Institute. For
hot dogs and sliced deli meats, there is regulation pending to permit
irradiation to kill Listeria, he said. But because the threat of L.
monocytogenes is in the plant environment, it is more important to clean equipment
and drains, Murphy said. A four-step process involves removing visible debris,
cleaning with detergent, rinsing with hot water and spraying a sanitizer.
Julia came home for good on New Year's Day 1998, but she could not sit up by
herself. When Julia was about a year old, her neurologist said she had cerebral
palsy. "I was scared; I felt guilty," Nowak said. "I was just so
glad to have this little girl, (but) I ate whatever caused this."
To this day, Nowak does not know how L. monocytogenes got into her system and
then into Julia's. The summer she was pregnant, she was careful to eat
well-done hamburgers, because of the threat of E. coli contamination. But she
had never heard of L. monocytogenes, which can infect uncooked meat and
vegetables and is also found in soft cheeses and processed foods such as
ready-to-eat cold cuts. Nowak says now that she frequently ate cold cuts
without special precautions.
Nowak and her husband have since become vocal critics of the food-safety
system. "There are economic forces at work," said Capriotti, Julia's
father.
Recently, there was a ground-beef recall that included meat Capriotti had
purchased at his local A&P. When he went back to return the meat, the store
manager thanked him and said he had not heard about the recall, Capriotti said.
"Where is the power in the recall?" Capriotti said. "Where is
the efficacy? How can we as consumers protect ourselves in a system like that?
"Because someone didn't do his or her job right, my daughter has to pay a
price for the rest of her life."
___
Melanie Moul's first pregnancy was normal until the 24th week. At the end of
December 1998, she woke up with a fever of 103. The fever rose to 105, and she
went to the hospital. After that, a lot of what happened is a blank for Moul.
"I was so numb," she says now. She drifted asleep, and when she woke
up, she was having the baby, recalls Moul, 37, of Sewickley, Pa., near
Pittsburgh. "I delivered Hope on Dec. 29," Moul said. "She lived
for 10 minutes." An autopsy showed that L. monocytogenes had infected the
baby.
"They found the placenta polluted with Listeria," Moul said. Moul
said she ate hot dogs, which can carry L. monocytogenes, with her two
stepdaughters in October 1998. During Thanksgiving, she developed flu-like
symptoms.
"I had a fever," she said. "I was so tired and exhausted. But
that's just pregnancy, you think." Moul did not go to the doctor then,
because her symptoms cleared up. She did not think about it until almost a
month later, when she landed in the hospital.
The Mouls later sued Sara Lee Corp., the maker of Ballpark hot dogs, on behalf
of Hope; they reached a settlement in 2000. A Sara Lee representative said the
company did not "comment on any litigation during or after. We have a
good-faith agreement with parties involved that we will not comment."
"I just had to fight, because it was the best thing that could get me out
of depression," Moul said. "They (Sara Lee) needed to be held
responsible." Meat-processing companies too often think about the
financial aspects of testing, Moul said.
"I wish that these companies could let go of the thought of money,"
she said. "They expended some lives. That part angers me."
Moul has since had three children: Emma, 3, and 1-year-old twins Abigail and
Tabitha. But she often thinks of Hope.
"It was a horrible night and a horrible experience," she said. Hope
died "over a hot dog. It is sad."
___
When Renee Drayton rushed to a Philadelphia hospital from her Silver Spring,
Md., home in August, she had never heard of Listeria.
Her father, Raymond, 75, had been taken to the hospital after her mother,
Lawese, found him doubled over in his bed on Aug. 28. In late August, Raymond
Drayton had felt sick, but dismissed his symptoms as those of Crohn's disease,
an inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract from which he suffered.
The doctors ran tests on her father and said he had listeriosis. They gave him
antibiotics, Renee Drayton said, but he died Sept. 1. Health investigators
found that Raymond Drayton had eaten deli meat contaminated with a strain of L.
monocytogenes. The brand of meat has not been identified, the family said.
The strain of bacteria that killed Drayton was the same "outbreak"
strain blamed for 53 illnesses and eight deaths in the Northeast last year.
Last month, Lawese Drayton filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Montgomery
County, Pa., meat-processing plant Wampler Foods Inc. and J.L. Foods Co. Inc.
of Camden, N.J.
In October, Wampler recalled 27.4 million pounds of poultry. According to the
CDC, a strain of Listeria "indistinguishable" from the outbreak
strain was found in drainage areas in the plant. In November, J.L. Foods
recalled 4.2 million pounds of poultry. The CDC said a strain of Listeria
"indistinguishable" from the outbreak strain was found on a sample of
turkey breast.
J.L. Foods could not be reached for comment, and a written statement by
Pilgrim's Pride said the company would not comment on pending litigation.
Raymond Drayton "purchased ready-to-eat poultry meat a week or so prior to
his death," said Jonathan Dailey, one of Drayton's lawyers. "He was
diagnosed with Listeria, and it was his cause of death. It was the outbreak
strain that killed (him)."
The USDA needs to get tougher with meat processors, Renee Drayton said. Her
father's death could have been prevented, she said. Listeria, she said, is not
an airborne disease like severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
It is "something we have control over to some degree," she said.
___
Like many of her classmates, Katelyn Koesterer, 7, got a stomach virus in
January. But unlike her classmates, she became so weak that doctors advised her
parents to home-school her for the rest of the winter until she got stronger.
She went back to school only six weeks ago. Her immune system is too weak to
risk further illness.
It wasn't always this way for Katelyn, whose life changed dramatically last
May. It was barbecue season, and the Koesterer family, of Orangeburg, N.Y., had
been eating hamburgers frequently. Katelyn, then 6, developed bloody diarrhea
on May 23; her parents took her to Nyack Hospital on May 25, but the doctors
diagnosed it as a virus. By May 27, she was taken to Westchester Medical
Center, and by May 29, doctors told Katelyn's mother, Ann, that her child had
E. coli in her system.
Over the next several days, Katelyn's kidneys failed. She continued to have
bloody diarrhea and was vomiting, and she also developed pancreatitis, an
inflammation of the pancreas. She had one major seizure; her left vocal cord
was left paralyzed. She required blood and plasma transfusions.
She was released from the hospital June 25 but was back in the emergency room
four days later. A CT scan showed that she had a pseudocyst, a collection of
tissue, fluid, enzymes and blood, on her pancreas, her mother said.
Surgery was prescribed, but doctors at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in
New York disagreed, saying the girl's pancreas was "mush" and surgery
could not be done. Now, Katelyn is expected to need a pancreas transplant and
may also need a kidney transplant, her mother said.
Today, Katelyn is an insulin-dependent diabetic. She has to take pancreatic
enzymes to digest her food, along with medication to lower her blood sugar.
She has gotten her voice back, though it does not sound the same as it did before
the E. coli infection, her mother said.
Dennis and Ann Koesterer have sued BJ's Wholesale Club Inc., where they bought
the hamburger meat that Katelyn ate. They are seeking $30 million. The ground
beef they bought at BJ's West Nyack store tested positive for E. coli. So did
the ground beef purchased by another customer at BJ's about the same time. On
July 16, more than two months after Dennis Koesterer bought hamburger there,
BJ's contacted 131 people who had bought meat at the same time as the Koesterers
and asked them to return the meat for a refund.
The company has declined to pay for Katelyn's medical bills, Koesterer said.
BJ's spokeswoman Julie Somers said the company would not comment on pending
litigation.
"People rely on the USDA label without realizing what the USDA function
is," Ann Koesterer said. "We are relying too much on companies to
self-audit or self-inspect without any oversight.
"We have so many oversight boards. But we don't have one over our
food?"
"You strap your child to a car seat and make sure it is safe," she
said. "Yet I put a hamburger onto her plate and it nearly killed
her."
___
(c) 2003, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
International Meeting for Radiation
Processing to be Held in Chicago September 7-12: The
International Meeting for Radiation Processing (IMRP 2003) will be held
September 7-12 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, the optimum location
for attracting those segments of food and other industries interested in
advancing and expanding the industrial applications of ionizing radiation.
IMRP 2003 is the most
important meeting for the exchange of information on the science and technology
of radiation processing. These dual conference meetings are organized to gather
the world's experts in the radiation field, and to explore the industrial
applications of E-beams, X-rays, and gamma rays. It is also an opportunity to
present new products, new technologies, new processes, new standards, and new
applications.
To encourage participation by food industry
representatives, IMRP 2003 has increased the dedicated segments of IMRP
that are devoted to food irradiation. Overall food session topics will
include Marketing, Food Irradiation Overview, Market Segments,
Education, and Market Trends and Forecasts.
Food Irradiation Education
Activities:
The
Minnesota Beef Council, in cooperation with SureBeam Corporation will be
assisting with, conducting or participating in the following irradiation
education activities:
St. Peter, MN; June 19, 2003: National
Conference of Watershed Heroes Conference
Ft. Pierre, SD; June 20-22, 2003: American
National CattleWomen Region VII Workshop
St. Paul, MN; June 24, 2003: Country of Origin Information Session (Irradiated
Burgers Served)
Dallas, TX; June 25, 2003: Texas Beef Council
Food Irradiation Workshop
New Ulm, MN; June 27, 2003: Hub Club Farm/City
Celebration
St. Paul, MN; July 2, 2003; North American MENSA
Convention
St. Paul, MN; July 9, 2003: Minnesota Food &
Nutrition Network Meeting
Green Bay, WI; July 13-15, 2003: National Association
of County Agricultural Agents
Brainerd, MN; July 18-19, 2003: Brainerd Barbecue Fest
Beckley, WV; July 24, 2003: 57th
Annual Environmental Health Seminar
River Falls, WI; August 9, 2003: St. Croix
County Farm City Day
St. Paul, MN; August 21-September 1, 2003:
Minnesota State Fair
Chicago, IL; September 7-12, 2003: International Meeting for Radiation
Processing (IMRP 2003)
Jasper, IN; Sept. 23, 2003: Indiana
Environmental Health Association Conference
Tennessee; October 3, 2003: Tennessee Cattlemen
Annual Meeting
Food Irradiation Update is
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Ronald F. Eustice
Executive Director
Minnesota Beef Council
2950 Metro Drive # 102
Bloomington, MN 55425
USA
Phone: 952/854-6980
Fax: 952/854-6906
E-mail: ron@mnbeef.org
Website: www.mnbeef.org