Legal News

Beef Packers, Inc., of Fresno, California has recalled over 800,000 pounds of ground beef products that may be linked to an outbreak of drug resistant salmonella. The beef was repackaged and sold under different brand names at Sam's Club, Safeway and Vons in at least 9 states.

The ground beef in question was produced between June 5 and June 23, 2009. It was delivered to distribution centers in California, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. The ground beef products were repackaged and sold under different brand names at different stores. Here is a list (as of today) of the retailers identified by the USDA to be part of the beef product recall. It includes the nationwide chains Safeway, Sam's Club and Vons.

Through its website, Safeway specifies that customers should destroy any Safeway branded ground beef products with sell-by dates between June 6 and July 14 that were purchased in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming. This meat should no longer be on store shelves, but may still be in many people's freezers.

Vons is part of Safeway, and the same Safeway recall information applies to its stores.

Walmart, owner of Sam's Club, through its website, gives a copy of the USDA recall notice (which is almost useless to the end consumer), but provides no information as to which Sam's locations, or even which states are involved.

A look at the USDA's list shows that Sam's Clubs in at least Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming sold the tainted meat.

Just a couple of weeks ago, King Sooper's grocery stores recalled about 500,000 pounds of ground beef due to connection with another drug resistant strain of salmonella.

• USDA List of Affected Retailers as of 8/7/2009
• Salmonella cases spur Fresno ground beef recall (San Francisco Chronicle)
• USDA confirms drug-resistant Salmonella in beef recall (FeedStuffs)
• Drug-Resistant Salmonella in Beef: An "Epidemic"? (The Daily Green)
• Products Liability FAQ (provided by Hefferon & Hefferon PA)
• Products Liability Resources (provided by Harris & Harris Lawyers)