Personal Injury Law

Multi-State Salmonella Newport Outbreak Leads To Huge Ground Beef Recall; Consumers At Risk In Four Western States

By Marler Clark LLP

The multi-state Salmonella Newport outbreak centered on Colorado has taken new twist with a huge beef recall out of California being announced today by the  U. S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety & Inspection Service. 

Target of the recall is an estimated 825,769 pounds of ground beef products manufactured by Fresno, CA-based Beef Packers Inc.  From there, the ground beef was sold to grocery stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Utah; which then repacked it for sale to consumers.

No list of retailers selling the dangerously contaminated ground beef in the four states has yet been issued by FSIS, which it is suppose to do under its own policy.

In a prepared statement, FSIS said: "As a result of an ongoing investigation into an outbreak of Salmonella Newport associated with ground beef products, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) notified FSIS of the situation. Epidemiological and traceback investigations conducted by FSIS and CDPHE determined that there is an association between the fresh ground beef products and illnesses reported in Colorado. The illnesses were also linked through the epidemiological investigation by their uncommon pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern found in PulseNet, a national network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

We previously reported that the strain of Salmonella Newport under investigation in Colorado is resistant to many normal antibiotics.

Treatment failure in infected individuals and increase risk of hospitalization is possible.
 

The ground beef products were produced on various dates ranging from June 5, 2009 through June 23, 2009 and bear the establishment number "EST. 31913" printed on the case code labels. The ground beef products were distributed to retail distribution centers in Arizona, California, Colorado and Utah. Because these products were repackaged into consumer-size packages and sold under different retail brand names, consumers should check with their local retailer to determine whether they may have purchased any of the products subject to recall.

The products subject to recall include:

• 60 pound cases of "GRD Beef Sirl Fine 90/10." Each case bears the identifying case code W69012 with Use/Freeze by dates of 06/23/09, 06/26/09, 06/28/09, 06/29/09, 06/30/09, 07/03/09, 07/05/09, 07/06/09, 07/07/09, 07/10/09 and 07/11/09.
• 60 pound cases of "Grnd Bf Fine Sir 90/10 10/60 H". Each case bears the identifying case code W69064 with Use/Freeze by dates of 06/26/09, 07/03/09, 07/06/09, 07/07/09 and 07/14/09.
• 60 pound cases of "Grnd Beef 90/10 Fine 60." Each case bears the identifying case code W69063 with Use/Freeze by dates of 06/23/09, 06/26/09, 06/30/09, 07/03/09, 07/07/09, 07/10/09 and 07/11/09.
• 80 pound cases of "Grnd Beef Fine 91/09 10#/80." Each case bears the identifying case code W69108 with Use/Freeze by dates of 06/30/09, 07/06/09, 07/08/09 and 07/13/09 .
• 60 pound cases of "Grnd Beef Fine 93/07 10/60." Each case bears the identifying case code W69363 with Use/Freeze by dates of 06/23/09, 06/26/09, 06/28/09, 06/29/09, 06/30/09, 07/03/09, 07/07/09, 07/10/09 and 07/11/09.
• 60 pound cases of "Grnd Beef Fine 93/07 10#/60 H." Each case bears the identifying case code W69360 with Use/Freeze by date of 06/26/09, 07/03/09, 07/06/09, 07/10/09 and 07/14/09.
• 40 pound cases of "GRD BEEF FINE 96/04-10#/40." Each case bears the identifying case code W69602 with Use/Freeze by dates of 06/23/09, 06/30/09, 07/03/09, 07/07/09, 07/10/09 and 07/11/09.

Full post as published by Salmonella Blog on August 06, 2009 (boomark / email).