19 million pounds of hamburger nation's second largest meat recall
Advertiser Staff and News Services
In the second largest meat recall in U.S. history, a Colorado company asked Americans yesterday to check their refrigerators, stores and backyard grills and destroy 19 million pounds of hamburger meat because of E. coli concerns.
At least 17 people in Colorado, including several children who came close to dying, and at least six people in California, Michigan, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming have been sickened by E. coli infections associated with meat from the plant in Greeley, Colo., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed.
Company officials and the Agriculture Department warned Americans to be on the lookout for the affected meat, which has been on the market since April and could have been sold under several brand names. The labels on all the recalled products bear the code "EST. 969" inside the USDA seal of inspection.
The beef should be returned to the place of purchase.
The Department of Health said a preliminary check of Hawai'i markets yesterday reported no stores carrying the recalled ground beef, but health officials cautioned that consumers should cook their ground beef thoroughly before eating it.
Maurice Tamura, manager of the Food and Drug Department of the Department of Health, said health officials called Safeway yesterday, but received no response as to whether the market had received any shipment of the recalled ground beef. A press release from Safeway's Pleasanton, Calif., office listed Hawai'i among states included in the recall.
State officials also called Con-Agra about possible Hawai'i meat shipments, but the company did not respond as of yesterday afternoon, Tamura said.
If the product was shipped to Hawai'i, the amount was very minimal and it is not currently available in local markets, a Department of Health press release said.
If consumers take proper precautions — cooking the meat thoroughly to an internal temperature of 160 degrees, and washing hands and utensils — they shouldn't worry about becoming ill, said Paul Mead, chief of the CDC's outbreak response and surveillance unit.
ConAgra's facility in Colorado provides beef to grocery store chains, independent grocery stores, food service operators and restaurant owners.
Late last month, ConAgra recalled 354,000 pounds of fresh and frozen ground beef products because of E. coli concerns, and insisted only that batch had been linked definitely to the bacterium.
But ConAgra spokesman Jim Herlihy said the company wanted to err on the side of caution.
"We want to be absolutely certain there's no opportunity that this product could be affected," Herlihy said. "
Added Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman: "This action is being taken as a cautionary measure to ensure the protection of public health."
Herlihy said ConAgra could not say exactly what brand names the meat has been sold under. "So many of our customers are wholesalers who distribute to customers of their own," he said.
The 19 million pounds of meat were produced between April 12 and July 11, officials said.
While authorities tried to calm public concerns, it was clear that significant issues must have prompted the huge recall of meat from store shelves and consumer refrigerators.
In a statement, the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service said the action was prompted after an investigation of "plant practices and company records" indicated products from the Greeley slaughterhouse "had a heightened possibility of containing E. coli." The plant kills more than 3,000 head of cattle and processes their meat daily.
The largest meat recall in U.S. history was in 1997, when Hudson Foods recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef after 15 people in Colorado fell ill from E. coli.
E. coli is a bacterium found in the intestinal tracts and feces of livestock. If it contaminates meat, it can lead to digestive illnesses and potentially death in humans.
