Saturday, American Foods Group (AFG) of Green Bay, Wisconsin, recalled over 95,000 pounds of ground beef products for E. coli contamination after the Illinois Department of Health confirmed consumers in that state had become ill with E. coli infections after eating AFG ground beef products. According to the USDA Recall Release:
The products subject to recall were distributed for further processing and repackaging and will not bear the recalling firm's establishment number on the package. As the use-by date for products subject to this recall may have expired, consumers can contact their retailers to ask if they received any of these products and if so, consumers are urged to look in their freezers for these products and return or discard them if found.
The ground beef products subject to recall were produced on Oct. 10, 2007, and were distributed to retail establishments and distributors in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Virginia.
This is not the first time AFG and Cub Foods have been implicated in an E. coli outbreak. In 1998, Cub Foods recalled ground beef contaminated with E. coli that was suspected to have been manufactured by AFG after an E. coli outbreak was traced to ground beef sold at the chain store. In late 1999 and early 2000, another E. coli outbreak in Minnesota was traced to E. coli-contaminated ground beef sold at Cub Foods and manufactured by AFG. Still another was identified as having come from ground beef produced by AFG in November and December of 2000.
With consumer concerns about food safety - especially amid beef recalls - increasing of late, the news that more food is being recalled for E. coli contamination is perplexing. Appropriately, the New York Times published an editorial titled, "You're Eating That?", an editorial that questions the safety of our nation's food supply, on Sunday. In lines with what food safety advocates have been saying, the editorial concludes:
After years of mollycoddling the industry, the Bush administration needs to start protecting America’s consumers. Many members of the food industry now understand that they are losing their customers’ confidence, which means they’re in danger of losing their business.
The Food Marketing Institute — with 1,500 members, including major grocery chains and wholesalers — is calling for new rules that would allow the government to recall any food shipment if the producer or importer hesitates. That makes sense to us. Americans need to be a lot more confident that what is on sale at the corner grocery is safe enough to eat.
