Another E. Coli Ground Beef Recall
September 7th, 2007 laurie
Anyone in New England who shops at Shaw’s Supermarkets should know that ground beef patties sold in those stores were recalled today. Fairbanks Farms, a New York state meat processor, said that the patties could be contaminated with E. coli bacteria. This recall sounds a lot like the one issued by Oregon-based Interstate Meats a week ago. That company recalled tons of E. coli-tainted ground beef in Alaska, Oregon, Washington and Idaho after it made nine people sick. Fortunately, the Fairbanks Farms ground beef hasn’t made any one sick – or at least no E. coli has been reported because of the meat. E. coli poisoning isn’t always reported, so there is no way to say for sure that no one became sick from these beef patties.
The ground beef patties were sold under the Shaw’s label in 1.33-pound trays that are marked with the code “Est. 492” inside the USDA mark of inspections and the date code “243”. The nutritional label has a time stamp between “17:05” and “17:25”. Anyone who has these patties should take them back to Shaw’s where they can get a refund.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, E. coli infects about 73,000 people in the US every year, and kills 61. Symptoms of E. coli poisoning include cramping and diarrhea that often turns bloody. This disease is very dangerous for children, the elderly or people with weakened immune systems. E. coli can cause kidney failure, and patients can spend weeks undergoing dialysis
Fairbanks Farms said that it was able to isolate most of the E. coli-tainted beef at its warehouse, but that some of it was shipped to Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Last week Metz Fresh said the same thing about the Salmonella –laced fresh bagged spinach it recalled. Metz was able to stop most of it from being shipped, but something like 8,000 cartons of the stuff still made it into stores. It’s a mystery why these companies don’t wait until they know a food is safe before they ship it out. Seems like it would save everyone a lot of aggravation.
