On October 21, 2009, Lone Star Brisket Company, a Thorndale, Texas firm, has recalled approximately 14 pounds of smoked beef products that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

The following products are subject to recall:

• 2.5- 3-pound vacuum sealed packages of "Texas Star Meat Company HALF SMOKED BEEF BRISKET Fully Cooked." Each label bears the establishment number "EST. 27340" inside the USDA mark of inspection and a day-glo sticker "SLICED" next to the product label. Each package also has a Use By/Sell By date of "12/16/09," and can also be identified by the case code "285A."
• 4-5-pound vacuum sealed packages of "Texas Star Meat Company WHOLE SMOKED BEEF BRISKET Fully Cooked." Each label bears the establishment number "EST. 27340" inside the USDA mark of inspection and a day-glo sticker "SLICED" next to the product label. Each package also has a Use By/Sell By date of "12/16/09," and can also be identified by the case code "285A."

The smoked beef brisket products were packaged on October 14, 2009 and distributed to a Department of Defense Commissary in Oklahoma City, Okla.

The problem was discovered through FSIS's microbiological sampling program. FSIS has received no reports of illnesses associated with consumption of this product.

If you are diagnosed with listeriosis, a serious illness caused by Listeria monocytogenes, contact Pritzker Olsen Attorneys at 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit our online free consultation form.

Labels: beef, Listeria, listeria attorney

Culebra Meat Market has recalled about 4000 pounds of beef products it produced and distributed in the San Antonio area because of possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7. The Texas Department of State Health Services laboratory testing detected E. coli O157:H7 in samples collected from the meat company.

Products included in the recall are beef stew meat, carne asada and ground beef produced by the company from Oct. 2 through Oct. 17, 2009. Products were sold to some San Antonio-area restaurants and in the company’s retail store, 2800 Culebra Road in San Antonio.

The Texas Department of State Health Services is investigating whether the products also were sold at other Culebra retail store locations in San Antonio.

Products sold to consumers at the company’s retail store were packaged in various weights and wrapped in white butcher paper with no markings. Products sold to restaurants were packed in 10-pound boxes labeled with the company and product names and lot codes 100209 through 101709. The boxes have the inspection label “TEXAS INSP. & PSD. 740” located inside an outline of the state of Texas.

The Texas Department of State Health Services is not aware of any illnesses associated with the recalled product.

Symptoms of E. coli O157:H7 illness include bloody diarrhea and stomach pains. People with these symptoms should seek medical attention immediately. Symptoms typically occur two to nine days after exposure.

Infection can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can cause E. coli kidney failure or death.

For a free consultation with an E. coli lawyer about an E. coli lawsuit, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit our online consultation form.

Labels: beef, beef investigation, beef recall, E coli lawyer

Vons supermarkets in California and Nevada are among the retail outlets that took delivery of ground beef subsequently recalled by Cargill's Beef Packers Inc. due to concern the meat may have caused an outbreak of Salmonella Newport in Colorado and other western states.

Vons is owned by Safeway Inc. and Safeway and Sam's Club stores also received ground beef made in Fresno and recalled by Cargill. The Cargill recall involves 825, 769 pounds of ground beef and is associated with an outbreak that has sickened at least 40 people with a drug-resistant strain of Salmonella Newport.

In connection with the recall, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) released a complete list of retail stores that are known to have received the potentially tainted Cargill beef and many Vons stores in California and Nevada are on the list.

National food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen is representing Salmonella victims nationwide and our lawyers are available for a free Vons lawsuit consultation. To contact a Salmonella lawyer at our firm, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete one of our free Salmonella compensation consultation forms.

Our lawyers have collected tens of millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning and we are public advocates for reforming U.S. food safety laws and meat inspection protocols. Our attorneys represent victims in practically every major outbreak of foodborne illness.

Labels: bean recall, beef, Cargill lawsuit, Salmonella Newport

Safeway Inc. is recalling ground beef products sold between June 6 and July 14 from stores in nine states in conjunction with the Cargill recall of 825,769 pounds of ground beef that state and federal health officials have associated with an outbreak of Salmonella Newport.

National food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen is representing Salmonella victims nationwide. Our lawyers are available for a free Safeway lawsuit consultation by calling 1-888-377-8900 or by completing one of our free online consultation forms.

California-based Safeway issued a press release saying the product was no longer in stores, but the company is urging its customers to check their freezers. The potentially contaminated ground beef, ground beef patties and meatloaf were sold at full-service counters and self-service areas and would have sell-by dates between June 6 and July 14, the company said.

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) released a full list of retail stores involved in the recall. The FSIS list includes ALL Safeway stores in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota and New Mexico. Some Safeway stores in Hawaii, Arizona, California and Nevada are also on the list.

Officials have said there have been 40 confirmed cases of Salmonella Newport in the outbreak, including 21 in Colorado, where four victims were hospitalized but are recovering. The outbreak strain of Salmonella Newport is resistant to antibiotic drugs normally used to treat such infections. This raises the risk of hospitalization and failed treatment and consumers are being urged to heed the recall closely.

Labels: bean recall, beef, beef investigation, Safeway ground beef recall, salmonella outbreak lawsuit

In a recent press release from the USDA’ Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), new procedures and sampling techniques are being compiled into data in order to decrease the growing prevalence of Salmonella in our nation’s beef and poultry supply. According to a CDC report in 2006, Salmonella accounted for 38.6% of human foodborne illnesses, the greatest of all such pathogens. FSIS also launched their new protocol to deal with Salmonella in 2006. The initiative grouped production establishments into categories based on their rates of Salmonella with current regulations.

The categories for establishments are as follows, as stated in the report:

Category 2 establishments are those with sample set results above half but not exceeding the current standard for one or both of their most recent sample sets and Category 3 are those that are exceeding the current standards. Category 1 establishments have the lowest Salmonella rates of the three categories with sample set results at or below half of the current standards.

All the collected data from the establishments will be posted on the FSIS web site on March 28, 2008. The new compilation of data will shed more light on data already analyzed which shows differences in the third quarter of 2007 with the first quarter.

Eighty-four percent of turkey slaughter establishments are now Category 1, the other 16 percent are in Category 2. These numbers represent significant improvement from the first quarter of 2007 where 53 percent of establishments were in Category 1, 38 percent in Category 2 and three percent at Category 3. For broilers, the percentage of establishments in Category 1 is 73 percent and the percentage of establishments in Category 2 is 23 percent. This figure is up by ten percent from the first quarter of 2007. This is compared with only 35.5 percent of broiler establishments performing in Category 1 after the first quarter of 2006.

New technology such as new equipment, procedures, and processing techniques are also being tested at Category 1 establishments to measure their effectiveness at combating the presence of Salmonella. The partaking establishments take samples during every shift to be sent to FSIS for analysis.

Along with all of the data being collected and analyzed, FSIS has reexamined how to deal with smaller ground beef establishments that produce very little of the beef supply. Rather than taking the majority of test samples from these establishments, more samples are being taken from the larger establishments, while random testing of the smaller establishments continues. FSIS is also looking into sub-groups of establishments, such as ratite or religious-exempt establishments, to make sure that all possible sub-groups are documented and tested so that it can be clearer where contamination is coming from. All data is being compared to data on the CDC’s PulseNet so that the FSIS can have a clearer picture of which facilities are producing products that lead to foodborne illness.

Labels: beef, food safety, FSIS, poultry, Salmonella