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370,000 lb Beef Recall!

Mike

Well-known member
This will surely help with consumer confidence; :roll:


http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_025_2007_Expanded/index.asp
 

PORKER

Well-known member
The expanded recall totals approximately 370,000 pounds.

The ground beef products in the expanded recall were produced on April 13, while the products subject to the original recall were produced on April 20. The ground beef products were shipped to retail distribution centers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Sooo! how much was imported TRIM ?

The ground beef products in the expanded recall were produced on April 13, while the products subject to the original recall were produced on April 20.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
It is true that since 2002, there has been a general decline in the number of E. coli cases traced to red meat, and an increase in the number of E. coli cases traced to fresh produce, namely bagged lettuce and spinach. But in the last weeks E. coli outbreaks traced to beef products have underscored the importance of continued efforts to protect the public from E. coli in meat.
BUT>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
On June 4, FSIS announced that health officials had traced ground beef produced by United Food Group, LLC, of Vernon, California, as the source of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak and that United Food Group was recalling approximately 75,000 pounds of potentially contaminated ground beef. On June 6, United Food Group expanded its recall to include 370,000 additional pounds of ground beef. Illnesses associated with the outbreak were reported in California, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah.
On May 29, the Fresno County Department of Community Health issued a press release stating that it was investigating an E. coli outbreak among Fresno County residents. As of May 31, eleven people had been confirmed ill with E. coli O157:H7 infections as part of the outbreak, and the Health Department had inspected the “Meat Market” in Northwest Fresno, a potential source of the outbreak. The outbreak investigation is ongoing.
On May 11, FSIS announced that Davis Creek Meats and Seafood of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was recalling approximately 129,000 pounds of beef products due to possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7. The recall was issued in response to a Michigan Department of Community Health investigation into the E. coli illnesses of two Michigan residents. The potentially contaminated beef products were distributed in Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
On May 10, FSIS issued a recall notice to consumers who may have purchased ground beef products made with beef trim products produced by PM Beef Holdings, LLC, of Windom, Minnesota. PM Beef Holdings recalled approximately 117,500 pounds of beef trim products, which were sold to distributors and retail outlets in Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The beef trim products were subsequently ground and sold under different retail names. Minnesota and Wisconsin health officials traced at least seven E. coli illnesses to consumption of the ground beef products, which were purchased at Lunds or Byerly’s stores in the two states.
On April 20, FSIS announced the recall of 107,900 pounds of frozen ground beef products produced by Richwood Meat Co., of Merced, California, stating that the California Department of Health Services had discovered E. coli contamination during an investigation. The ground beef products were distributed to stores in Arizona, California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
Also on April 20, FSIS and the Pennsylvania Department of Health warned consumers that steak products produced by HFX, Inc. of South Claysburg, Pennsylvania, and sold at Hoss’s Family Steak and Sea Restaurants, a Pennsylvania-based restaurant chain, were potentially contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. The announcement came after an investigation linked several E. coli illnesses to consumption of the steaks at Hoss’s. HFX recalled approximately 4,900 pounds of meat products.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Beef lawsuit keeps food safety a hot topic
By Darrell Smith - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, June 16, 2007

Cynthia Centura stopped by a Stater Bros. supermarket to pick up ground beef -- a must to make the spaghetti she was planning for dinner Sunday night menu at her home in Hemet.

She couldn't have known that the meat produced less than two hours away by a Los Angeles-area meat processor and stocked at one of the Southland's most popular supermarket chains would severely sicken her 4-year-old daughter, Lauren Fournier.

She is one of 14 people who fell ill after eating ground beef tainted with the potentially deadly bacteria E. coli O157:H7. Fournier's parents are taking Vernon-based United Food Group LLC to court in Riverside County, seeking unspecified damages.

United Food spokesman Lyle Orwig, in a prepared statement released Friday, said officials had not yet reviewed the suit but that the company "remains deeply sorry that any illnesses may have resulted from the recalled product."

United Food has opened a 24-hour, toll-free hotline at (800) 325-4164 and a Web site at www.unitedfoodgrouprecall. com for more information on the recall.

A list of recalled beef brands is also available at the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service's Web site, www.fsis.usda.gov.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, appears to be the first legal salvo fired against United Food as debate over food safety continues to grow in the face of a 5.7 million-pound, 11-state recall of the tainted ground beef.

Troubled by the latest in a rash of recalls across the country, consumer advocates are voicing concern about food safety.

Yes, the surveillance systems that detect food-borne pathogens have improved, said Chris Waldrop, director of the Consumer Federation of America's Food Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

"At the same time, we're having recalls because people are getting sick," Waldrop added. "That's unacceptable."

He recalled the dark days of the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak in the early 1990s and the combined government and industry efforts that followed to rid the food supply of E. coli bacteria.

Today, Waldrop sees a disturbing return: "It looked like (improvements in food safety) were working, but something has happened. Something's going on in the food supply chain. We need to figure out what that is. We can't let our guard down. We need to have the same level of vigilance."

Testing at beef processing plants varies from processor to processor, but relies on a combination of industry and USDA guidelines and beef industry "best practices."

In a 2006 Texas A&M study prepared for the beef industry, examples included sampling finished ground beef products every 15 minutes to test specifically for E. coli O157:H7; documenting the source of raw material through lot or serial numbers; and discouraging the introduction of excess meat into the processing flow.

The United Foods recall is the largest of a number of recalls in recent months. In all, more than 6 million pounds of ground beef and related products have been recalled from stores and distribution sites in 25 states since April.

In Fournier's case, court records show, the E. coli bacteria lodged in the child's large intestine and began to shut down her kidneys. She spent three weeks in a San Diego hospital recovering from the illness.

All of the signs -- the cramping, the dehydration, the bloody diarrhea -- pointed to the same E. coli strain in last September's spinach scare. In that case, three people died and 205 others were sickened across 26 states.

Fournier was not the only person to fall ill after eating the tainted ground beef. It also sickened two people in nearby Los Angeles County, two in Colorado, six in Arizona and others in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.

"What do you tell people?" said Elisa Odabashian, West Coast director of the nonprofit Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports. "Beef doesn't have a label on it. It's produced in a huge lot. You really don't know."

The list is long and growing longer, and it's not just beef: E. coli in spinach, salmonella in peanut butter, melamine in pet food, poisonous diethylene glycol in toothpaste.

Undermanned and underfunded, regulatory agencies and industries overseeing their own safety practices are only part of the problem and do little to bolster consumer confidence in the nation's food supply, Odabashian said.

"We're sitting ducks right now. No one's ensuring for safety at this point," Odabashian said.

An investigation continues into how the beef was contaminated.

"We want to understand what happened. What was it that did this?" said William Marler of Seattle firm Marler Clark LLC, one of the attorneys representing Lawrence Fournier and Cynthia Centura in the case.

Marler, who specializes in food safety cases, won multimillion-dollar settlements in high-profile E. coli cases in the 1990s, including a 1993 case against Jack in the Box after contaminated burgers sickened 144 people who ate at the fast-food chain.

"Why did United wait for consumers to get sick?" Marler said. "There was a failure in the system somewhere."

About the writer:
The Bee's Darrell Smith can be reached at (916) 321-1040 or [email protected]
 
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