Grilling out over the Memorial Day Weekend is a holiday tradition but some Americans might have made the “mis-steak” of using meat products that have been recently recalled and could make their families sick.
In these inflationary times, many like to stock up on their favorite grilling staples such as ground beef when on sale and freeze their purchases for later use.
Consumers, however, need to be aware of ongoing food recalls and safety issues.
In the month leading up to Memorial Day Weekend, for example, the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued three safety notices about ground beef including a recall of 120,872 pound of ground beef on April 25, 2022 that were shipped nationwide and may be contaminated with E. coli 0103.
Consumers should check their freezers for ground beef products that were produced between February 1, 2022, and April 8, 2022, and bear establishment number “EST. 46841” inside the USDA mark of inspection.
There are a total of 42 products included in this recall of 120,000+ pounds of ground beef. A complete list of products subject to the recall can be found here and photos of labels for the ground beef products recalled can be found here.
The recalled items were shipped by Lakeside Refrigerated Services, a Swedesboro, N.J. establishment and brand names include Thomas Farms, SEG, Nature’s Reserve, Tajima, Marketside Butcher, and Weis.
Distribution areas by state included:
“The problem was discovered during routine FSIS testing of imported products. There have been no confirmed reports of illness or adverse reactions due to consumption of these products,” said the FSIS in its recall notice. “FSIS is concerned that some products may be in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.”
The FSIS said that many clinical laboratories do not test for non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) such as O103 because it is harder to identify than STEC O157:H7.
People can become ill from STECs 2–8 days (average of 3–4 days) after consuming the organism. Most people infected with STEC O103 develop diarrhea (often bloody) and vomiting.
Some illnesses last longer and can be more severe. Infection is usually diagnosed by testing of a stool sample. Vigorous rehydration and other supportive care are the usual treatment; antibiotic treatment is generally not recommended.
Most people recover within a week, but, rarely, some develop a more severe infection.
There have been two other safety issues with ground beef since the recall on April 25 including:
Ground beef is not the only popular grilling item or summer picnic table offerings that faces safety issues as the FSIS has issued several alerts leading up to summer including the following:
The recent ground beef recalls show how important traceability with products such as FreshByte Software are to protect beef and other products as they move from the ranch to the table.
FreshByte offers total Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) capabilities to meet the new mandates, along with those changes in consumer preferences, industry practices and rising volumes of imports that increasingly complicate the U.S. food chain.
Contact FreshByte today to find out how our software can meet and exceed government regulations and allows for easy tracing as products move along the supply chain to the end user.