The Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service revealed retailers it has reason to believe carried beef products recalled by JBS Swift Co., for possible E. coli contamination
The Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, July 2, 2009 12:00 am
The Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service revealed retailers it has reason to believe carried beef products recalled by JBS Swift Co., for possible E. coli contamination.
None is in Nebraska, even though the original recall suggested some of the beef may have been distributed here.
Twenty three people infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular "DNA fingerprint" have been reported from 9 states, the Centers for Disease Control said. Nebraska is not among them.
Of those 23 people, 17 have been confirmed by an advanced DNA test as having the outbreak strain; confirming tests are pending on others, CDC said.
The number of ill people reported by the CDC in each state is as follows: California (4), Maine (1), Michigan (6), Minnesota (1), New Hampshire (1), New Jersey (2), New Mexico (1), New York (1) and Wisconsin (6).
This list of retailers may not include all retail locations that have received the recalled product or may include retail locations that did not actually receive the recalled product, the USDA said.
The agency advised using product-specific identification information, available at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/ News_&_Events/Recall_034_2009_Expanded/index.asp, in addition to this list of retail stores, to check meat or poultry products in your possession to see if they have been recalled.
The retailers and locations are:
Price Chopper, no locations specified, but the chain is in the Northeast, not the unaffiliated Price Chopper stores in Kansas and Missouri.
Hannaford: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York.
Stop and Shop: Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, northern Kentucky, southeastern Indiana, western Tennessee.
Kroger: Mississippi, Illinois.
Food 4 Less: Chicago area.
Fry's: Arizona, Utah, other western states.
Costco: No states given.
JBS Swift, of Greeley, Colo., first recalled the beef June 24, then expanded the recall June 28. Food safety advocates had criticized the company and the government for not revealing the retailers that had sold the recalled beef.