Researchers believe shooting an E. coli vaccine into cattle, mixing probiotics into feed and zapping boxes of ground beef with radiation are methods the industry should be using to keep the bacteria out of the food chain.

"We shouldn't have to be concerned about the food that we eat making us sick," says Rick Holley, a food scientist at the University of Manitoba. "We should be able in this country to go to the store and buy some food and bring it home, and have every confidence that the meal is going to be nutritious and safe. "That's a given, as far as I'm concerned."

There has been worry over meat safety in Canada since an extensive recall of more than 1,500 beef products from the XL Foods processing plant in Brooks, Alta. So far, tests have confirmed five people in the province got sick from E. coli bacteria after eating XL steaks.

Bioniche, a company based in Belleville, Ont., produces a vaccine that reduces the amount of E. coli growing inside cattle, thereby limiting the bacteria the animals shed or poop into the environment. Andrew Potter, director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan, helped produce the vaccine. He thinks it's not popular with cattle producers because of the cost. A cow needs three shots at $3 per dose.

Potter says it doesn't make sense for ranchers to pay for a problem that doesn't affect their animals, only people. "Your cows don't get sick from E. coli, so why should you vaccinate? Why should you lay out a few more dollars to do something that gets you no economic return?"

Mark Klassen with the Canadian Cattlemen's Association says it doesn't just come down to dollars. Klassen believes other interventions, such as radiation, are more effective.

Holley agrees science in the food safety field needs to go back to the beginning - feed - instead of focusing on slaughter plants at the end of the line.