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Recalled Beef-Still For Sale

Mike

Well-known member
State inspectors find recalled meat at New Jersey store
By JEFFREY GOLD | AP Business Writer
4:38 PM EDT, October 25, 2007

NEWARK, N.J. - New Jersey consumer safety officials on Thursday said its inspectors were able to buy boxes of potentially tainted frozen hamburgers at a store weeks after the meat was recalled, sparking fear that a distributor may have delivered boxes to other stores.

"The public's health is clearly endangered by having these recalled products available for purchase and consumption," Attorney General Anne Milgram said. "We want to know what other stores may have purchased these products from the distributor and immediately inspect those stores."

To learn that information, the state subpoenaed the company that delivered the beef to the store, Greater New York Frozen Food Distribution Co. Inc., of New York.




A message seeking comment Thursday from the distributor was not immediately returned.

The 19 boxes were purchased in Union City on Wednesday, nearly four weeks after the New Jersey manufacturer, Topps Meat Co., issued a nationwide recall on Sept. 29 for 21.7 million pounds of frozen patties.

Officials would not reveal the name of the store because of the pending investigation, said Jeff Lamm, a spokesman for the state Division of Consumer Affairs.

Investigators have not determined when the store received the shipment of frozen patties, Lamm said.

Selling or distributing a recalled product could be a violation of the state's Consumer Fraud Act.

State inspectors are also continuing to visit stores and search for recalled Topps products, which are sold under the Topps brand as well as Pathmark, ShopRite, Mike's, Kohler Foods, Rastelli's Fine Foods, Roma-Topps, Sam's Choice, Sand Castle, and West Side labels. All recalled products will have a USDA establishment number of EST 9748 on the back panel of the package or in the USDA logo.

Topps, based in Elizabeth, closed its business six days after the nationwide recall. It blamed its collapse on the scope of the recall _ a year's worth of production _ even though much of the meat had already been eaten.

The size of the recall _ the second-largest U.S. beef recall _ also prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to announce changes in how it will inspect meat plants. After being criticized for foot-dragging, the USDA said it would move faster to encourage recalls. The agency cannot issue recalls.

Meanwhile, 40 people in eight states were sickened since July with E. coli infections linked to the Topps burgers.

A USDA investigation into the sources of the contaminated meat packaged by Topps was continuing.

Topps burgers contained at least three versions of the O157:H7 strain of E. coli bacteria, which can be fatal to humans. The strain is harbored in the intestines of cattle and can also get on their hides. Improper butchering and processing can cause the E. coli to get onto meat. Thorough cooking, to at least 160 degrees internal temperature, can destroy the bacteria.
 

Tex

Well-known member
The USDA's incompetence in dealing with food safety issues like recalls is showing through.

I hope these people are able to change the system through civil action what the USDA was not able to do with its legislated authority. The inadequacies in our food safety need to be closed even if the executive branch wants to use these issues and the incompetence in running the USDA to garnish political contributions from business who don't want to be regulated or who want political protection from a bought off administration.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:10 pm Post subject: When is a Recall not a Recall? When you still can buy contaminatied beef

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When is a Recall not a Recall? When you still can buy contaminated meat on your store shelves.
Posted on October 31, 2007 by E. coli Attorney

Source of Article: http://www.marlerblog.com/

Jeff Gold, AP Business Writer in New Jersey, has continued to dig into the complete failure of the “voluntary recall” system to get this E. coli - contaminated Topps hamburger off store shelves. I posted nearly a week ago when reports first surfaced that the product was still being sold a month after Topps issued a recall (and went out of business). So, who is responsible for removing E. coli – contaminated meat off store shelves? Mr. Gold’s story:
State inspectors find more recalled meat at New Jersey stores


Meat recalled a month ago that could be contaminated with a potentially fatal bacteria was found in seven northern New Jersey stores, state consumer safety officials said Tuesday. Inspectors in the past week have seized 138 boxes of frozen hamburgers made by Topps Meat Co., which issued a nationwide recall on Sept. 29 for 21.7 million pounds of frozen patties.
Greater New York Frozen Food Distribution Co. Inc., of New York, was subpoenaed last week. A spokesman for the company said Tuesday that no meat was delivered after the recall. "The meat was delivered before the recall, on Sept. 10," spokesman Frank Conner said. "We are one of many companies that delivered the meat before the recall. We stopped delivering the meat as soon as we heard about the recall. We have no control over what a grocery store owner does with his stock."

"Recall," that it has been reported that there are at least three "genetic fingerprints" of E. coli O157:H7 (potentially meaning that the contamination at Topps came from multiple sources - at least three) that has been found in ill people and in left over product. One of those fingerprints was found in a Canadian Meat Plant (now also in bankruptcy) that was the source of both meat to Topps and to the death of one Canadian and the sickening of 44 others this past summer which now totals over 100 in North America. It will be interesting if the paperwork and grinding records at Topps allows for the "traceback" of all genetic fingerprints to the source.
 
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