The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a standing advisory out to consumers to check their refrigerators and freezers for ground beef products produced by Fairbank Farms and purchased on or after September 15 from a variety of retailers in the Northeast.
Most of the beef packages in this recall — first announced on Halloween — bear the establishment number “Est. 492″ inside the USDA mark of inspection and have identifying package dates of “091409″, “091509″ or “091609″.
Fairbank Farms of Ashville, New York, recalled 545,699 pounds of ground beef and related products due to the possibility it could be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
So far, two people have died and 19 have been hospitalized. Five of the victims have developed E. coli HUS, a life-threatening condition most likely to develop in small children or in adults over 60. National food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen Attorneys is representing the family of a 5-year-old from Auburn, Maine, who was hospitalized with HUS, or hemolytic uremic syndrome, for three weeks.
The child’s case has been affirmatively tied to ground beef contaminated with the outbreak strain of E. coli. His case is one of four from the state of Maine that the CDC includes in its latest overview of the outbreak.
As part of the Class I Recall of Fairbank Farms ground beef, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has published a complete list of retail stores where the raw product was sold in meat cases.
If you or a loved one has become ill after inadvertently eating ground beef that may be part of this recall, contact an E. coli attorney at Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our online contact and information form.
So far, the outbreak cluster includes 26 persons from 8 states infected with matching strains of E. coli O157:H7. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: California (1), Connecticut (6), Massachusetts (8), Maryland (1), Maine (4), New Hampshire (4), New York (1), and Vermont (1).
