Grant Park Packing issued the recall notice in conjunction with the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) on Wednesday. The concern among health officials is that the recalled beef was shipped to restaurants nationwide, and could be served to customers.
The recalled beef was distributed in 40 lb. cardboard boxes marked “For institutional use only,” and produced from Oct. 30-31 to Nov. 1, 2018, FSIS said.
Affected products can be identified with the code “EST. 21781” inside the USDA mark of inspection. The meat was shipped to Minnesota for further distribution, and to Kentucky for institutional use, according to the recall notice.
Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a common form of bacteria typically found found in the environment, foods, and intestines of people and animals, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most types of E. coli are not only harmless to humans and other animals, but are actually a vital component of a healthy intestinal tract. However, some forms of the bacteria — such as E. coli 0157 — can cause diarrhea, urinary tract infections (UTIs), respiratory illness, bloodstream infections, and other illnesses.
The strain of E. coli associated with the two recent ground beef recalls has been harder to identify than usual, FSIS said. Food safety officials, working in conjunction with the CDC and Tennessee Department of Health, are investigating an outbreak of the strain, with many patients reporting that they recently ate meals in a restaurant. Beef collected from those restaurants was contaminated with the same strain of E. coli, but authorities haven’t definitively linked the two.
Source: Yahoo Finance
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