CDC Reports on Fairbank Ground Beef Outbreak
Here is the official statement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the current Fairbank ground beef E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, which is more widespread than originally reported — though still concentrated in New England. If you have legal questions about this outbreak, call national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen Attorneys at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our online contact and information.
Several state health departments, CDC, and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and InspectionService (USDA-FSIS) are investigating a multi-state outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections. On October 31, 2009, FSIS issued a notice about a recall of 545,699 pounds of beef products from Fairbank Farms that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. Health officials in several states who were investigating a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses, with isolates that match by “DNA fingerprinting” analyses, found that most ill persons had consumed ground beef, with several purchasing the same or similar product from a common retail chain. At least some of the illnesses appear to be associated with products subject to these recalls. A sample from an opened package of ground beef recovered from a patient’s home was tested by the Massachusetts Department of Health and yielded an E. coli O157:H7 isolate that matched the patient isolates by DNA analysis.
The cluster includes twenty-eight persons from 12 states infected with matching strains of E. coli O157:H7. Of these, the genetic association of 7 human isolates and the product isolate have been confirmed by an advanced secondary DNA test ; secondary tests are pending on others. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: California (1), Connecticut (4), Massachusetts (8), Maryland (1), Maine (2), Minnesota (1), New Hampshire (4), New Jersey (1), New York (1), Pennsylvania (2), South Dakota (2), and Vermont (1).
The first reported illness began on August 18, 2009, and the last began on October 10, 2009; however all but 2 patients reported becoming ill between September 17 and October 10, 2009. Sixteen patients are reported to have been hospitalized and 3 developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Two deaths have been reported. Sixty-seven percent of patients are male and 43% are less than 18 years old (range 1 to 84 years).
Most of the beef packages in the recall bear the establishment number “Est. 492″ inside the USDA mark of inspection and have identifying package dates of “091509″ or “091609.” Consumers are urged to check their refrigerators and freezers for beef products produced by this firm and purchased on or after September 15, 2009.
Ground Beef E. coli Recall in 10 Eastern States
More states than originally thought were on the receiving end of potentially contaminated ground beef shipments from Fairbank Farms. Federal officials have associated fresh ground beef from the company with an active E. coli ground beef outbreak in New England.
After tests confirmed the presence of E. coli O157:H7, Fairbank recalled 545,699 pounds of ground beef products and beef chubs that are normally ground into hamburger at stores. The Ashville, New York, meatpacker said the potentially contaminated meat went to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
In addition, the USDA has said some Maine residents have been sickened in the outbreak and health officials in New Hampshire have warned residents of that state to be on the lookout in their freezers for the recalled E. coli ground beef.
All of the product in question carries the USDA establishment number EST 492 inside the mark of inspection. That number is the plant identifier for Fairbank Farms.
The recalled ground beef, most of which was sold in retail store meat cases, is mostly 23 to 32 days past its expiration date by now, so it isn’t in stores. But Fairbank said the following retailers carried ground beef that was subsequently recalled: Trader Joe’s, Shaw’s, BJ Wholesale Club/Burris, ACME, Ford Brothers, Giant Food Stores and Price Chopper.
The USDA said the recalled ground beef is associated with a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 infections in Massachusetts, Maine and Connecticut, but the agency did not say how many. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several state departments of health and agriculture are assisting in the investigation.
Anyone sickened by ground beef purchased from these stores should see a physician immediately. For information on victims’ legal rights, call national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen Attorneys at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free).
E. coli O157:H7 is a pathogenic bacteria that can have long-term health consequence, frequently starting with kidney failure. In more than 5 percent of cases, patients develop life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome, or (HUS). Children under 5 and adults over 60 are most likely to develop E. coli HUS and more than 4 percent of cases result in death.
Here is the latest recall information from a press release issued by Fairbank Farms:
ACME
Packaged products (Sell-by dates ranging from 09/19/09 through 09/28/09)
§ Wild Harvest Natural Angus Ground Beef 85/15, 1#
§ Lancaster Brand Extra Lean Ground Beef 96/04, 1#
§ Lancaster Brand Ground Beef 90/10, 1# & 2#
BJ’s Wholesale Club/Burris
Packaged products (Sell-by dates ranging from 09/19/09 through 09/28/09)
§ Fresh Ground Beef Patties 85/15, 5#
§ Lean Ground Beef 93/07, 3# & 5#
§ Meatloaf and Meatball Mix, 2.5#
Ford Brothers
Packaged products (Sell-by dates ranging from 09/19/09 to 09/28/09)
§ Fresh Ground Beef Patty 80/20, 3#
Giant Food Stores
Packaged products (Sell-by dates ranging from 09/19/09 to 09/28/09)
§ Giant Meatloaf & Meatball Mix, 1#
§ Giant Nature’s Promise Ground Beef, 1#
§ Giant Nature’s Promise Ground Beef Patties
§ Giant Extra Lean Ground Beef 96/04, 1#
Price Chopper
Packaged products (Sell-by dates ranging from 09/19/09 to 09/28/09)
§ Price Chopper Meatloaf & Meatball Mix, 1# & 2.5#
§ Price Chopper Extra Lean Ground Beef 96/4, 1#
§ Price Chopper Fresh Ground Beef Chuck for Chili 80/20, 1#
Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc.
Packaged products (Sell-by dates ranging from 09/19/09 to 09/28/09)
§ Shaw’s Fresh Ground Beef 93/7, 1# and 2#
§ Shaw’s Fresh Ground Beef 80/20, 1#, 2#, 3#
§ Shaw’s Fresh Ground Beef 75/25, 1# and 3#
§ Shaw’s Fresh Ground Sirloin Beef Patties 90/10, 1.3#
§ Shaw’s Fresh Ground Round Beef Patties 85/15, 1.3#
§ Shaw’s Fresh Ground Beef Patties 80/20, 1.3#
§ Shaw’s Fresh Ground Beef Patties Family Pack 80/20, 3#
§ Shaw’s Angus Ground Beef 85/15, 1#
§ Shaw’s Fresh Ground Round Beef 85/15, 1#, 2#, 3#
§ Shaw’s Natural Ground Beef 90/10, 1#
§ Shaw’s Natural Ground Beef 85/15, 1#
§ Shaw’s Fresh Ground Sirloin 90/10, 1#, 2#, 3#
§ Meatloaf & Meatball Mix, 1#
Trader Joe’s
Brick packs (Sell-by dates 10/06/09 or10/07/09)
§ Trader Joe’s Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef 85/15, 1#
§ Trader Joe’s Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef 80/20, 1#
Packaged Products (Sell-by dates ranging from 09/19/09 to 09/28/09)
§ Trader Joe’s Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Beef Patty 85/15, 1#
§ Trader Joe’s Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef 96/4 Extra Lean, 1#
New England Ground Beef E. coli Outbreak and Recall Affecting MA ME CT Trader Joes Shaws Price Chopper BJs
A New England ground beef E. coli outbreak has been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and linked to ground beef produced by Fairbanks Farms and sold through Trader Joes, Price Chopper, Shaw’s, BJ’s, Lancaster and Wild Harvest, Ford Brothers and Giant.
New York-based Fairbanks Farms is recalling 545,699 pounds of fresh ground beef products that the CDC, USDA and state health and agricultural departments have associated with a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine. Authorities have not said how many people have been sickened.
The ground beef was produced by Fairbanks Farms in Ashville, New York, September 15 and 16. It has sell-by dates ranging from September 19-28. Most of the ground beef was sold in meat cases at retailers who use their own store labels, but you can identify suspect packages by looking for the USDA establishment number 492 inside the USDA mark of inspection.
E. coli O157:H7 is a potentially deadly pathogen that is particularly dangerous in young children and people who are older than 60. In more than 5 percent of cases, it leads to life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, the leading cause of kidney failure in children in the U.S.
If you or a loved one has symptoms of E. coli infection, including bloody diarrhea, see a physician immediately. For legal information about this outbreak and what families should do if they have been victimized, call national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen Attorneys. We can be contacted at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our online contact and information form.
Consumers have special legal rights in E. coli ground beef lawsuits because the pathogen is banned from ground beef. As such, it is an adulterant and the liability of selling adulterated food does not stop with the manufacturer.
Here is the New England ground beef E. coli recall announced by USDA and Fairbanks Farms:
Trader Joes
- 1-pound packages of “TRADER JOE’S BUTCHER SHOP FINE QUALITY MEATS GROUND BEEF 85/15.”
- 1-pound packages of “TRADER JOE’S BUTCHER SHOP FINE QUALITY MEATS GROUND BEEF 80/20.”
- NOTE: The sell-by dates for the above two products may be October 6 or 7, 2009.
- 1-pound trays of “TRADER JOE’S BUTCHER SHOP FINE QUALITY MEATS GROUND BEEF PATTIES 96/4 EXTRA LEAN.”
- 1-pound trays of “TRADER JOE’S BUTCHER SHOP FINE QUALITY MEATS GROUND BEEF PATTIES 85/15.”
Price Chopper
- 1- and 2.5-pound trays of “PRICE CHOPPER MEATLOAF & MEATBALL MIX.
- 1-pound trays of “PRICE CHOPPER EXTRA LEAN GROUND BEEF 96/4.”
- 1-pound trays of “PRICE CHOPPER FRESH GROUND BEEF CHUCK FOR CHILI 80% LEAN 20% FAT.”
Lancaster and Wild Harvest
- 1-pound trays of “LANCASTER BRAND 96/4 EXTRA LEAN GROUND BEEF.”
- 1- and 2-pound trays of “LANCASTER BRAND 90/10 GROUND BEEF.”
- 1-pound trays of “WILD HARVEST NATURAL 85/15 ANGUS GROUND BEEF.”
Shaw’s
- 1- and 2-pound trays of “SHAW’S FRESH GROUND BEEF 93/7.”
- 1-, 2- and 3-pound trays of “SHAW’S FRESH GROUND BEEF 80/20.”
- 1- and 3-pound trays of “SHAW’S FRESH GROUND BEEF 75/25.”
- 1.3-pound trays of “SHAW’S FRESH GROUND SIRLOIN BEEF PATTIES 90/10.”
- 1.3-pound trays of “SHAW’S FRESH GROUND ROUND BEEF PATTIES 85/15.”
- 1.3-pound trays of “SHAW’S FRESH GROUND BEEF PATTIES 80/20.”
- 3-pound trays of “SHAW’S FRESH GROUND BEEF PATTIES FAMILY PACK 80/20.”
- 1-pound trays of “SHAW’S ANGUS GROUND BEEF 85/15.”
- 1-, 2- and 3-pound trays of “SHAW’S FRESH GROUND ROUND BEEF 85/15.”
- 1-pound trays of “SHAW’S 90% NATURAL GROUND BEEF.”
- 1-pound trays of “SHAW’S 85% NATURAL GROUND BEEF.”
- 1-, 2- and 3-pound trays of “SHAW’S FRESH GROUND SIRLOIN 90/10.”
- 1-pound trays of “MEATLOAF & MEATBALL MIX.”
BJ’s
- 5-pound trays of “FRESH GROUND BEEF, CONTAINS 15 % FAT” patties.
- 3- and 5-pound trays of “LEAN GROUND BEEF, CONTAINS 7% FAT.”
- 2.5-pound trays of “MEATLOAF & MEATBALL MIX.”
Ford Brothers
- 3-pound trays of “FRESH GROUND BEEF, CONTAINS 20% FAT” patties.
Giant
- 1-pound trays of “GIANT EXTRA LEAN GROUND BEEF 96/4.”
- 1-pound trays of “GIANT MEATLOAF & MEATBALL MIX.”
- 1-pound trays of “GIANT NATURE’S PROMISE GROUND BEEF.”
- 1-pound trays of “GIANT NATURE’S PROMISE GROUND BEEF PATTIES.”
South Shore Meats Recall Follows Camp Bournedale E coli
The Centers for Disease Control has associated a finding of E. coli O157:H7 in leftover ground beef from a hamburger meal at Camp Bournedale in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with the Lincoln Middle School E. coli outbreak.
Why Won’t USDA Mandate E. coli Beef Trim Tests?
By Brendan Flaherty
Of all the revelations made by New York Times reporter Michael Moss in his excellent food safety story last Sunday, the one that jumped off the page the most was a quote from a safety officer at American Foodservice, a company that grinds one million pounds of hamburger a day.
The officer, Timothy P. Biela, said big slaughterhouses won’t sell beef trimmings to grinding plants if the plants test incoming shipments for E. coli O157:H7, a potentially deadly pathogen that was banned from finished ground beef in 1994.
“They would not sell to us,” Biela said. “If I test and it’s positive, I put them in a regulatory situation. So we don’t do that.”
What he is saying is that the big slaughterhouses are wary that a positive E. coli test at a grinding plant would trigger huge recalls of meat sold to others plants as well. It’s a dangerous industry practice and the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), the agency in charge of ensuring meat safety, has been looking the other way.
In fact, the FSIS has the power to change this, but they choose not to. Why? The practice only protects unsanitary slaughterhouses. Dr. Kenneth Petersen, an assistant administrator with FSIS, told the Times that his department could mandate testing, but that it needed to consider the impact on companies as well as consumers.
“I have to look at the entire industry, not just what is best for public health,” Petersen said.
Amazing stuff, especially when you consider the bottom line of the Times’ story: Eating ground beef is still a gamble — one that can cost lives when E. coli O157:H7 infections develop into hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) – which happens in five to 10 percent of all cases. In the prime example of the Times story, a Minnesota dance instructor was paralyzed from the waist down after eating a hamburger produced by Cargill that was laden with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 in a 2007 outbreak that sickened more than 900 people.
The story traced the ingredients that went into the contaminated, frozen patties made by Cargill. The “Angus Beef Patties,” as labeled, were actually made from cheap, low-grade trimmings and scraps that came from cow parts that were more likely to come in contact with feces during slaughter than more expensive cuts. The fatty ingredients came from slaughter plants in Nebraska, Texas, Uruguay and South Dakota and were mixed together to make frozen patties. The South Dakota ingredients had been treated with ammonia to kill bacteria, the story said.
In 2008, the USDA issued draft guidelines to slaughterhouses and grinders saying every production lot should be sampled and tested fore leaving the supplier and again at the receiver. But after the draft guideline received negative reaction from industry, the guidelines were never made official.
What could be more important than guarding public health? Isn’t that the ultimate consideration with food? After reading the New York Times story, the truth is that money sometimes comes first.
If you or a loved one has been sickened in a ground beef E. coli outbreak, contact national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen Attorneys. Our firm is one of the few in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. We have collected tens of millions for victims of food poisoning and we also are dedicated to the prevention of pathogenic outbreaks. For more information, call a food safety lawyer at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free). To receive a free case consultation, , complete one of our online forms.
