Once again, a company is recalling ground beef contaminated with salmonella. As Blake Morrison and Peter Eisler write for USA Today online, the Fresno, California-based Beef Packers Inc. is issuing a recall of its ground beef for the second time this year. Beef Packers Inc., which is owned by Cargill, announced the recall on Friday for 22,723 “pounds of ground beef products that were sent to stores in Arizona and New Mexico.”Two illnesses have been linked to the ground beef processed by Beef Packers at a plant in September, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. The products were sold under different brand names.
Safeway, a grocery retailer, has announced the beef recall at all of its stores and has removed the tainted products from their shelves, but the store encourages costumers in Arizona and one outlet in Gallup, NM to check all ground beef they might have and “discard any with ‘sell by’ dates of Sept. 28 through Oct. 11. Recalled products include fresh ground beef, beef patties, meat balls and stuffed peppers.”
Food recalls are issued voluntarily by companies after testing has confirmed possible contamination. This past August Beef Packers issued a recall of roughly 826,000 pounds of grounds beef, which was also contaminated with salmonella.
One outstanding concern is that the August recall did not include products used for the National School Lunch program, of which Beef Packers is a “major supplier [.]” It is important to note that none of the orders sent to schools tested positive for salmonella. Still, “food-safety experts and lawmakers say the beef produced for schools should have been rejected by the government. Instead, it was sent to schools.”
The link between salmonella, E.coli, and other pathogens that have caused illnesses to ground beef has caught the attention of the federal government. Recently E.coli linked to beef processed by plants in New York and Massachusetts caused several people, including children, to fall ill and actually led to the death of two individuals. This outbreak is now the subject of a civil suit between some of the parents of the sick children and the two beef suppliers.
Partially in response to this suit, New York Senator Kristen Gillibrand introduced the E.Coli Eradication Act of 2009. As previously posted on this blog, “The legislation introduced by Gillibrand ‘would require companies to test for a deadly E. coli strain [,]’ according to Michael Moss’ story for the New York Times. The bill focuses on slaughterhouse trimmings and other meat sources used to make ground beef. The legislation would require both slaughterhouses and grinding facilities to have the ground beef sources tested before they are mixed to make ground beef.”
It remains to be seen if the latest recall, and the potential implications with the school lunch program, will provide Senator Gillibrand with enough momentum to get her legislation moving. If the issue is not addressed via Gillibrand’s bill, it may still be addressed by separate food safety legislation that may be taken up by the Senate in 2010.
To read the USA Today online article click here.
To read the previous blog post on the Gillibrand bill click here.
To read the previous blog post on the lawsuit in the Northeast click here.
Posted: 12/07/09
