More Nebraska Beef Recalled - UPDATE

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                                           California firm recalls beef due to E. coli:






USDA

8 minutes ago
Aug. 7, 2008
 


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department said S&S Foods LLC is recalling about 153,630 lbs of frozen ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
 
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said the Azusa, California-based company was recalling the beef products that were shipped to distribution centers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Allentown, Pennsylvania. The recall was announced late on Wednesday.

The government said 11 illnesses have been reported with consumption of this product.

The label of the products subject to recall bear the establishment number "EST. 20375" inside the USDA mark of inspection and a case code beginning "06238" ink-jet printed on the side of the box




The following product was subject to the recall: 30-lb boxes of

"742798 MFST, 100% GROUND BEEF BULK, 80/20, 1LB.BRICK."




E. coli O157:H7 can cause diarrhea and dehydration. Children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible.

(Reporting by Christopher Doering; editing by Jim Marshall)

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                                    More Nebraska Beef recalled despite assurances






By TIMBERLY ROSS,
Associated Press Writer
Sat Aug 9, 2008
5:47 PM ET
 
OMAHA, Neb. - Federal authorities last month assured consumers that a meat plant linked to nearly 50 illnesses caused by tainted ground beef had made enough changes after a recall to ensure that its products were safe. Less than a month later, the same processor has recalled 1.2 million pounds of other beef products that might have sickened more than 30 people.
 
The changes made after the first recall of meat processed by Nebraska Beef Ltd. affected only ground beef, Laura Reiser, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Saturday.

Nebraska Beef on Friday recalled 1.2 million pounds of primal cuts, subprimal cuts and boxed beef that were made on June 17, June 24 and July 8. The products have been linked to illnesses in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illlinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

As in the earlier recall, all the beef being recalled now was sold to retailers and other companies that planned to further process the meat. So product labels probably will not include the "EST 19336" code that identified Nebraska Beef.

A call to Nebraska Beef went unanswered Saturday.

Reiser said she wasn't sure at the time of the first recall whether the USDA investigation had spread beyond the area of the Omaha plant that produces ground beef, which has been linked to at least 49 cases of E. coli in seven states.

But she said information compiled in the weeks after the June 30 recall showed another strain of the potentially deadly E. coli bacterium in other beef products.

"We were focused on the products that were going out for grinding," she said Saturday. "We were focusing on the product that we tied to the (initial) illnesses."

Some of Nebraska Beef's products were sold by Whole Foods Market, which also announced a recall Friday. Whole Foods is recalling fresh ground beef sold June 2 to Aug. 6 because of worries about E. coli contamination.

A Whole Foods spokeswoman said it had received reports that seven people in Massachusetts and two people in Pennsylvania who shopped at Whole Foods became ill.

USDA spokeswoman Amanda Eamich said July 10 that federal officials were satisfied that Nebraska Beef had made enough changes to ensure product safety. Eamich said then that the plant would receive additional scrutiny in July, August and September to make sure the changes were made. She refused to discuss the details of the changes Nebraska Beef had made.

The company's July recall covered all beef trimmings and other products intended for use in ground beef that were produced between May 16 and June 26.

Several lawsuits have already been filed against privately held Nebraska Beef as a result of the earlier E. coli outbreak and recall. The company slaughters about 2,000 head of cattle a day and employs about 800 people in Omaha.

Cooking ground beef to an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees should kill E. coli bacteria, if they are present. The USDA recommends that people use a meat thermometer to verify they have cooked meat thoroughly.

The CDC estimates that the E. coli 0157:H7 variant sickens about 73,000 people and kills 61 each year in the United States. Most of those who die have weak immune systems, such as the elderly or very young.

Symptoms of E. coli infection include stomach cramps and diarrhea that may turn bloody within one to three days.

___

Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed to this report.

___

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                                       Nebraska firm expands beef recall, USDA says
 




AUG. 15, 2008

(Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) has said Omaha meat packing company Nebraska Beef Ltd is expanding its recently announced beef recall, after USDA regulators concluded that the company's production practices on June 24 were insufficient to effectively control E. coli.
 
Nebraska Beef added about 160,000 pounds of beef to last week's beef recall of 1.2 million pounds that may be contaminated with a particularly dangerous strain of E. coli.

The total amount now in the recall is about 1.36 million pounds of beef, and includes beef that was produced on June 24, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said on its web site

www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_029_2008_Expanded

/index.asp.

The recall is "Class 1," meaning there is a "reasonable probability" that eating the beef "will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death," the USDA said. It is the most dangerous level of the three classes of recall.

"The products subject to the expansion may have been produced under insanitary conditions," the USDA said in a statement.

The recall is of primal and subprimal cuts that are larger sections of cows, such as chuck and rib, that can be cut down for individual or family-sized packaging.

It also is of "boxed beef" or carcasses that have been partially disassembled for shipping. Shipping containers and some product labels will bear Nebraska Beef's identifying the establishment number, "EST. 19336," but may or may not bear a green sticker, the USDA said.

Products bearing the green sticker were included in the 1.2 million pounds originally recalled, but were not identified in the product description with the company name, the USDA said.

E. coli O157:H7 can cause diarrhea and dehydration. Children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible.

Last month, Nebraska Beef recalled 5.3 million pounds of material used in making ground beef after 40 illnesses were reported in connection with its ground beef.



(Reporting by Tenzin Pema in Bangalore; editing by Christopher Johnson)