Late last night the he U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced additional information related to the Sept. 20 Public Health Alert for raw boneless beef trim products imported from Canada that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. FSIS is including two additional production dates in its alert.
FSIS testing of raw boneless beef trim product from Canadian Establishment 38, XL Foods, Inc., confirmed positive for E. coli O157:H7 on September 3, 2012. FSIS alerted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) of the positive results. After follow-up testing by FSIS and CFIA, the CFIA announced a recall by XL Foods, Inc. of a variety of ground beef products on September 16. Subsequently, the CFIA has expanded the scope of the recall to now include the production dates of August 27 and August 29, 2012.
XL Foods, Inc. has notified its customers, including U.S. establishments, that beef trim associated with the recall was shipped to them. The products subject to the Canadian recall were distributed to U.S. establishments in the following states: California, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. At the U.S. establishments, these products may have been further processed into various products, such as ground beef or ground beef patties.
Thus far the retail distribution list posted on FSIS’ website only names the following retailers that received the tainted product: Food4Less, FoodsCo., Jay C and Kroger. Safeway put out its own press release. For the most complete list of retailers in the United States and Canada recalling product, see the Food Bug Lady.