"beef recall" news and stories

More than 34,000 pounds of organic ground beef has been recalled by California-based First Class Foods because of a possibility of contamination with E. coli 0157:H7, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service reported. The beef is sold under the "Nature's Harvest" and "Organic Harvest" labels, and was shipped to stores in California, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Washington State. (The meat was produced on 12/7/10 and 12/16/10).

The recall began on December 30, when the company discovered a positive result for E.coli O157:H7 after an internal sampling of the beef products. No illness has been reported so far.

Specific products include 16-ounce packages of Nature's Harvest Organic Ground Beef Brick, Organic Harvest Organic Ground Beef Brick, and Nature's Harvest Ground Patty.

For more information, see the FSIS press release, or contact First Class Foods at www.firstclassfoods.com.

About 35,000 pounds of ground beef has been recalled by a Southern California meat distributor for potential E. coli contamination, the Associated Press reported.

The affected beef was produced by the South Gate Meat Co. between June 7 and 21. It was shipped to Los Angeles area restaurants, the AP reported.

A person who answered the South Gate Meat telephone told the AP the company was meeting with the USDA and unavailable for comment.

More about the recall after the jump.

WinCo Foods, a food seller operating in six Western states, has issued a recall on ground beef sold in all of its 70 stores, which are located in California, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Utah. This is an expansion of an earlier recall that affected only its Modesto, CA, stores, according to the Modesto Bee.

The original recall was announced on April 10. "Two samples of ground beef purchased at the Modesto store tested positive for E. coli O157:H7," wrote Brian Ramsay for the Bee, and consequently all tray-packed ground beef sold from April 3 through April 9 was recalled from the stores.

More on the recall after the jump.

Beef Packers, Inc., has recalled 22,723 pounds of ground beef on fears it could be contaminated with salmonella.

The Fresno, Calif., company issued the recall Friday, according to the United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The beef was packaged on Sept. 23, 2009, with the code "EST. 31913" on the case labels. According to the FSIS, the beef subjected to the recall are "60 pound cases of 'GRD Beef Fine 93/07 10/60.' Each case bears the identifying case code W69363 with Use/Freeze by dates of 10/11/09."

The beef was sent to a retail distribution center in Arizona.

In August, the same company issued a beef recall for 825,000 pounds of ground beef.

Salmonella can be life-threatening to the elderly and young children. It causes diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within eight to 72 hours of exposure. It's recommended that ground beef be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit to kill any bacteria.

A ground beef recall for more than 545,699 pounds of meat has been expanded to states from North Carolina to Maine on fears of E. coli contamination.

Fairbanks Farms of Ashville, N.Y., expanded its ground beef recall on Monday after learning packages of its meat produced between Sept. 14 and 16 may have been distributed to more states than first thought. The recalled ground beef was sold in Acme, BJ's, Ford Brothers, Giant Food Stores, Price Chopper, Shaw's and Trader Joe's.

Get the full recall list after the jump.