BJ’s Wholesale Club Ground Beef Recall for E. coli 026
The only retailer identified so far as a distributor of recalled Cargill ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli 026 is BJ’s Wholesale Club stores in eight northeastern and eastern states.
USDA has associated the Cargill E. coli ground beef recall with three confirmed illnesses caused by the identical strain of E. coli 026. There are two cases in Maine and one in New York. The agency’s initial Cargill ground beef recall distribution list includes 26 BJ’s Wholesale Club stores in Maine, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York.
An active E. coli ground beef investigation is continuing. The tainted Cargill ground beef was produced June 11 for use or freezing by July 1. People started to get sick June 24. Public health officials at the state and federal level are concerned that more outbreak cases could surface if consumers unknowingly pull recalled ground beef from their home freezers for meal preparation.
Cargill’s recalled ground beef was sold to BJ’s Wholesale Club in 42-pound cases. Fourteen-pound “chubs” inside the cases were for repackaging into trays of ground beef for sale in BJ’s Wholesale Club meat cases. The products subject to recall bear the establishment number “EST. 9400″ inside the USDA mark of inspection. The Class I recall covers 8,500 pounds of Cargill ground beef.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, E. coli O157:H7 causes 73,000 illnesses and 50 deaths every year in the United States. Another six E. coli strains – including O26 — are less pervasive but just as capable of causing severe illness, including hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).
Due to a gaping shortfall in federal law, only E. coli 0157:H7 is banned from ground beef as an adulterant. The prohibition hasn’t ended E. coli 0157:H7 contamination, but it has forced meatpackers to constantly test for it and it also calls for routine government testing of the products.
Maine E. coli Ground Beef Investigation
A Maine E. coli ground beef investigation traced E. coli 026 illnesses in Maine and New York to Cargill ground beef recalled early today in conjunction with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
An FSIS ground beef recall announcement said Cargill Meat Solutions Corp of Pennsylvania is recalling 8.500 pounds of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli 026, a potentially lethal human pathogen. The meat was produced June 11 and sold in 14-pound “chubs” to retailers who repackaged it for meat case display. The affected store brands haven’t been announced yet. The tainted ground beef was initially shipped to distribution centers in Connecticut and Maryland for further sale.
Two people from Maine and one from New York have been infected by the same identical strain of E. coli 026 and health investigators in the two states are continuing their efforts to learn the extent of this outbreak. Cargill is a large multi-national corporation that has been involved in E. coli ground beef recalls and outbreaks in the past. FSIS has found a convincing association between the Maine and New York E. coli cases and ground beef from Cargill.
Eating ground beef is a well-established mode of shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC). The most prevalent type of STEC is O157:H7, but E. coli 026 also produces shiga toxin that attacks a person’s red blood cells. In 5 to 15 percent of STEC infections, patients develop hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), a related condition.
HUS is the leading cause of kidney failure, worldwide, in children. It also can damage other parts of a person’s body, including the heart, brain and central nervous system. HUS in children is deadly in about 5 percent of cases.
Here is the Cargill E. coli ground beef recall announcement:
The products subject to recall bear the establishment number “EST. 9400″ inside the USDA mark of inspection. The recall includes 42-pound cases of “GROUND BEEF FINE 90/10,” containing three (3) – approximately 14 pound chubs each. These products have a “use/freeze by” date of “07/01/10,” and an identifying product code of “W69032.”
USDA-FSIS Proposed Rule Redefines the Eight-Hour Workday for Inspection Program Personnel
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) has announced a proposed rule that would redefine the eight-hour workday for inspection program personnel at federally inspected meat and poultry slaughter establishments. Under the proposed regulation, it would include time needed at the workplace to put on, or “don,” and take off, or “doff,” required gear, time spent walking to work stations after donning required gear, and time spent walking from work stations before doffing required gear.
Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act, and the Egg Products Inspection Act, FSIS provides mandatory federal inspection of meat and meat food products, poultry products, and processed egg products. FSIS bears the cost of mandatory inspection provided during non-overtime and non-holiday hours of operation, while the establishments pay for inspection services performed on holidays or on an overtime basis. The regulations define the basic workweek as five consecutive eight-hour days, excluding the lunch period. FSIS proposes that the eight hours of inspection service provided by the Agency include sufficient time for inspection program personnel to put on required gear and walk to a work station as well as to return from a workstation and remove required gear. Any time over those eight hours is overtime charged to an establishment.
Valley Meat Beef Recall Follows E. coli Outbreak
Valley Meat Company of Modesto, CA has recalled one million pounds of ground beef following an E. coli outbreak in California, according to the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS). Seven people have been sickened in the outbreak, which federal health officials began investigating in July after receiving notification from the California Department of Public Health regarding a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 cases that all matched the same PFGE pattern, or “genetic fingerprint.”
Distributed to institutional foodservice facilities and retail locations in Arizona, California, Texas and Oregon, the beef products were manufactured from Oct. 2009-Jan. 2010. The establishment number on the recalled frozen beef products is EST. 8268 and the production codes are 25709 through 01210. FSIS will post retail distribution information updates as that information becomes available. The FSIS is concerned that consumers may still have frozen recalled product in their freezers at home that could potentially be contaminated. FSIS advises consumers to check freezers to see if any of the following recalled products are there, and discard them immediately:
Valley Meat Company Beef Recall: Product Details
- (#2155) *IQF* 80/20% BEEF PATTIES 8/1R
- (#2503) SMASHBURGER 40/7 OZ. – VAC PACK
- (#2510) IQF 80/20% BEEF PATTIES 2/1 OVAL
- (#2515) *IQF* 80/20% BEEF PATTIES 2/1 R
- (#2535) IQF 80/20% BEEF PATTIES 3/1 OVAL
- (#2545) IQF 80/20% BEEF PATTIES 3/1R
- (#2575) *IQF* 80/20% BEEF PATTIES 4/1R
- (#2595) IQF – 80/20% PATTIES 4/1R THIN
- (#2605) *IQF* 80/20% BEEF PATTIES 5/1R
- (#2635) *IQF* 80/20% BEEF PATTIES 6/1R
- (#2668) BEEF CHUCK PATTIES 7 OZ- 21#
- (#3075) *IQF* 85/15% PATTIES 4/1R USFI
- (#3090) ‘RPQ’ 85/15 PATTIES 160/4 OZ.
- (#3325) “RPQ” 90/10 BEEF PATTIES 40/4 OZ
- (#3350) 90/10% BEEF PATTIES 160/4 OZ.
- (#3450)SUPREMAS BEEF PATTIES 12/3#
- (#3519) *IQF* 4/1 SOY PATTIES 80/20%
- (#3520) *IQF* 5/1 SOY PATTIES 80/20%
- (#3522) *IQF* 6/1 SOY PATTIES 80/20%
- (#3675) BEEF SOY PATTIES RETAIL 6/5#
- (#3700) 73/27% RETAIL PATTIES – 12/3#
- (#3705) 73/27% RETAIL PATTIES – 6/5#
- (#3710) 73/27% RETAIL PATTIES – 8/3#
- (#3715) BIGGER VALLEY BURGER – 6/5#
- (#3725) 80/20 BIGGER BURGER 12/3#
- (#3751) 80/20% RETAIL PATTIES 12/3#
- (#3800) 85/15% RETAIL PATTIES – 12/3#
- (#3850) BLACK ANGUS BURGER 12/2# BOX
- (#3875) 93/7% BEEF PATTIES 12/3# RETAIL
- (#3880) SAFEWAY 73/27 RETAIL BOXES 8#
- (#3882) SAFEWAY 73/27 PATTIES 12/2.5#
- (#3883) SAFEWAY 80/20 PATTIES 12/2.5#
- (#4000) 73/27% GROUND BEEF 10/1#
- (#4001) 73/27% GROUND BEEF 20/2#
- (#4005) 73/27% GROUND BEEF – 40/1#
- (#4015) 73/27% GROUND BEEF 4/5#
- (#4020) 73/27% GROUND BEEF – 8/5#
- (#4030) 73/27% GROUND BEEF 4/10#
- (#4035) 73/27% GROUND BEEF 15/3#
- (#4300) 80/20% GROUND BEEF 10/1#
- (#4305) 80/20% GROUND BEEF – 40/1#
- (#4310) 80/20% GROUND BEEF 4/5#
- (#4315) 80/20% GROUND BEEF 8/5#
- (#4325) 80/20% GROUND BEEF – 4/10#
- (#4326)*FRESH** 80/20% GROUND BEEF 4/10#
- (#4328)80/20 GROUND BEEF 4/10# WHITE BOX
- (#4329) ‘RPQ’ 80/20% GROUND BEEF 4/10#
- (#4335)80/20% GROUND BEEF 2/5# – PRINTED
- (#4610) 85/15% GROUND BEEF 4/5#
- (#4615) 85/15% GROUND BEEF 8/5#
- (#4625) “RPQ” 85/15% GROUND BEEF 4/10#
- (#4630) 85/15% G B 4/10# CLEAR-generic
- <>(#4915) 90/10% GROUND BEEF – 8/5#
- (#4925) 90/10% GROUND BEEF 4/10# / WHITE
- (#4930) 90/10% G B 4/10# / CLEAR-generic
- (#4980) 93/7% GROUND BEEF 4/10#
- (2714) HEARST 80/20 PATTIES 5/1R -10#
- (2715) HEARST GROUND BEEF 12/1# RETAIL
E. coli food poisoning infections can lead to life-threatening complications such as hemolytic uremic syndrome (E.coli HUS) especially in children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems. Anyone who thinks they may have an E. coli infection from contaminated ground beef should visit a doctor immediately and get tested for the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria.
Grass-Fed Cattle and E. coli O157:H7
Researchers have busted the food safety myth that grass-fed beef has less risk of E. coli O157:h7 than grain-fed beef. The study, to be published in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, tested bacterial contamination rates in 50 beef products labled as “grass-fed” and 50 conventionally raised beef products. The percentages of Escherichia coli positive samples did not differ between the two groups (44% vs. 44%).
The researchers conclusion:
Taken together, these data indicate that there are no clear food safety advantages to grass-fed beef products over conventional beef products.
Source: Jiayi Zhang, Samantha K. Wall, Li Xu, Paul D. Ebner, “Contamination Rates and Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacteria Isolated from “Grass-Fed” Labeled Beef Products,” Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. -Not available-, ahead of print. doi:10.1089/fpd.2010.0562.
