The shift in thinking began in 2003, when researchers in Japan linked the hepatitis E virus (HEV) with the consumption of grilled pork liver. After testing pig livers from Japanese supermarkets, the researchers determined that nearly 2 percent of the meat tested positive for HEV.43 In the United States, it was even worse: 11 percent of commercial pig livers purchased from supermarkets were contaminated with HEV.44
