Ground Beef Recall: What You Need To Know

As if listeria-laden cantaloupe weren’t enough to worry about, there’s a new product recall—this time for ground beef. Tyson Fresh Meats voluntarily recalled about 131,300 pounds of ground beef products on Tuesday due to possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7.

The products were processed in the company’s Emporia, KS facility on August 23 and were sent to distribution centers throughout the midwestern and eastern US.

The recalled product was sold in three- to five-pound tubes with the Kroger brand at Kroger stores, Butcher’s Beef at Food Lion and generically labeled at SAV-A-LOT, Spectrum Foods and Supervalu, among others.

Recalled products have a BEST BEFORE OR FREEZE BY date of SEP 12 2011, with establishment number 245D on the package seam. View a complete list of recalled products and their distribution.

The products aren’t on the shelves anymore, but the Food Safety and Inspection Service encourages consumers to check any ground beef they might have stashed in their freezers. If you have recalled ground beef, throw it out.

The recall occurred after four children of an Ohio family became sick from eating the ground beef. One child was hospitalized for nearly 10 days with severe diarrhea. The three remaining children reported being sick, but only one other child required medical treatment.

Ground beef found in the family's home tested positive for E. coli O157:H7, a bacteria that can result in bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and kidney failure.

Most at risk for any type of foodborne illness are very young children, seniors and people with compromised immune system. If you think you have a foodborne illness, contact a health care professional.

If you have questions about the recall, contact Tyson at 866-328-3156.

Preventing foodborne illness

You can greatly reduce your risk of contracting a foodborne illness by prepping food safely. Use these guidelines from the USDA:

• Wash hands thoroughly with warm, soapy water before and after handling raw meat—that’s at least 20 seconds of washing, folks!
• Keep raw meat and poultry away from foods that won’t be cooked and clean up any spills as soon as they happen. Juices form the raw meat can contaminate other foods.
• Cook ground beef to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Don’t rely on color to tell you if the meat has cooked long enough. Use a probe thermometer to test the internal temperature.
• Refrigerate! Get raw meat into the fridge within two hours of purchase (one hour if temps get over 90 Fahrenheit). Once it’s cooked, refrigerate within two hours of cooking.

For more food safety tips, check out the USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHOTLINE or go to www.fsis.usda.gov. Their AskKaren virtual representative tool answers your food safety questions 24 hours a day.