About 167,000 pounds of both fresh and frozen ground beef products have been recalled over possible E. coli contamination, according to the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
After the Minnesota departments of Agriculture and Health noticed a link between a group of reported illnesses and ground beef from Wolverine Packing Co., a meat distributor based in Detroit, the Food Safety and Inspection Service said it worked with the Minnesota departments to investigate.
Fifteen people had been reported sick as of Wednesday, with symptoms beginning Nov. 2 to Nov. 10. The same day, the Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a news release, the Minnesota Agriculture Department tested a ground beef sample from Wolverine and found that it contained a strain of harmful bacteria called E. coli O157:H7.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service provided a list of all affected products and images of every product label that are part of the recall. The fresh products have a “use by” date of Nov. 14, and the frozen ones have a “use by” date of Oct. 22, it said. The recalled products list the number “EST. 2574B” inside the USDA mark of inspection.
The products were shipped to restaurants across the country, causing the Food Safety and Inspection Service to be “concerned that some product may be in restaurant refrigerators or freezers.” It urged restaurants “not to serve these products” and encouraged consumers to “safely prepare their raw meat products,” advising them to cook all beef products to 160 degrees Fahrenheit to properly kill bacteria.
E. coli O157:H7 is the same strain of bacteria linked to onions in some McDonald’s Quarter Pounders last month. It can cause intestinal bleeding, bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can damage blood vessels in the kidneys, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
