What To Know About The 16,000 Lbs Of Ground Beef Being Recalled For Possible E. Coli Contamination
If you've recently purchased ground beef products in the past week, you may want to toss them. Months after a potential ground beef E. coli contamination at a different facility, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced that around 16,243 pounds of raw ground beef are being recalled for the same reason. The meat in question came from Cargill Meat Solutions' Hazleton, Pennsylvania, plant and was processed between April 26 and 27, 2024.
The ground beef products were shipped off to multiple Walmart locations across the country. They don't bear a Cargill Meat Solutions or Great Value logo, but they do have the USDA mark of inspection on the front of the label with an "EST. 86P" establishment number printed on the back of the label. The raw ground beef products primarily come in clear packaging, and feature a label of the product description.
The recalled items are: 2.25-pound plastic-wrapped trays of "93% LEAN 7% FAT ALL NATURAL GROUND BEEF" with lot code 117, 1.33-pound plastic-wrapped trays with four "PRIME RIB BEEF STEAK BURGERS PATTIES" with lot code 118, 2.25-pound plastic-wrapped trays of "85% LEAN 15% FAT ALL NATURAL ANGUS PREMIUM GROUND BEEF" with lot code 117, 2.25-pound plastic-wrapped trays of "80% LEAN 20% FAT ALL NATURAL GROUND BEEF CHUCK" with lot code 118, 1.33-pound plastic-wrapped trays of four "80% LEAN 20% FAT ALL NATURAL GROUND BEEF CHUCK PATTIES" with lot code 118, and 1.33-pound plastic-wrapped trays of four "90% LEAN 10% FAT ALL NATURAL GROUND BEEF SIRLOIN PATTIES" with lot code 118.
What states were the recalled ground beef products sent to?
The recalled items were only sent to Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington, D.C., reports The Hill. The FSIS notes that the products were potentially contaminated with the E. coli O157:H7 strain. The strain has recently been tied to another recall for ground beef, contaminating Greater Omaha Packing Co.'s products in April.
Though there have not yet been any confirmed reports of illness due to consuming these products, the USDA advises you to seek immediate medical care if you've eaten any E. coli-contaminated products. The strain is known to cause cramps, bloody diarrhea, and dehydration. Although many people can recover within a week, more serious cases can result in kidney failure, neurologic damage, and death.
If products with E. coli have made their way into your kitchen, practice food safety tips to decrease your chance of illness. Although discarding the potentially contaminated products is the best option, E. coli can also be killed off via thorough cooking. To ensure that your ground beef is properly cooked, thus killing the bacteria, use a meat thermometer to check when the meat has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit.