Safe food handling ALERT raw pork warning

SEATTLE -- A ground-breaking investigation by the KOMO Problem Solvers has found toxic, life-threatening Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) bacteria in some pork you might buy at grocery stores.

So the Problem Solvers, along with our network of stations in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and California did our own testing. At stores around the region, we purchased 97 packages, divided between ground pork and pork cutlets. We sent all the samples to IEH Laboratories, a USDA-certified lab in Seattle.

The scientists followed standard testing protocols and found MRSA in three different samples; all were ground pork. The positive samples were from purchases made in Oregon, California and Idaho -- three of the four states where we tested.

"The interesting situation here," said Samadpour, "is that now we have something that you would worry about in terms of wound infections in foods."

Like most other bacteria, MRSA will die if it's thoroughly cooked. But unlike E. coli or salmonella, MRSA causes skin infections, so just touching raw pork that has the bacteria could be a problem, according to both Samadpour and Goldburg.
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