E. Coli Scare Takes Raw Beef Liver Off the Menu in Japan

By Yoree Koh

Raw beef liver: Your goose is cooked.

Starting in July, restaurants in Japan will be?banned from serving raw beef liver after a food-safety panel deemed it a health risk.

The move, announced Tuesday by the health ministry, slices into a proud part of Japan?s culinary culture, banishing a favorite dish from local bars and barbecue restaurants. It?s the equivalent of Buffalo wings vanishing from American bar menus.

The culprit is E. coli ? a potentially deadly strain of the pathogen called O-157. Because it can produce a powerful toxin, it can cause serious illness, even in small doses. The food-safety panel said its verdict is the only preventative measure effective enough to ensure consumer health, following tests that showed the pathogen can fester inside the meat as well as on its surface.

In Iwate University inspections of 173 cow livers from 16 Japanese locations, three samples were found to be contaminated with the O-157 strain inside the meat, not just on its exterior. Japan Real Time has more.

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