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S & S Foods Ground Beef Recall

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

S&S Foods LLC., a California company, is recalling approximately 153,630 pounds of frozen bulk ground beef because the beef may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. 

The recalled ground beef was sold in 30 pound boxes and was intended for food service and institutional use. The frozen, bulk ground beef was shipped to distribution centers located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Some of the ground beef has been linked by DNA fingerprinting to an E. coli outbreak at Goshen Scout Reservation in Virginia, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal that included statements by Laura Reiser, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service agency spokeswoman:

Reiser said the only known E. Coli cases connected to the meat are from the camp. State health officials said there are 25 confirmed cases among people who attended camp between July 20 and 26. Two campers who attended last week were also infected, and more than 80 people have shown symptoms since the outbreak, said Christopher Novak, an epidemiologist with the Virginia Department of Health.

At least one Scout, a Northern Virginia resident, remains hospitalized with hemolytic uremic syndrome, a complication that can occur when the E. coli toxin enters the bloodstream and that can lead to kidney failure, Novak said.

A box of meat from the Goshen Scout Reservation, near Lexington, had an "establishment number" corresponding to an S&S plant, Reiser said, and E. coli in the meat has been genetically matched to bacteria found in samples taken from some campers. That and other evidence led the agency to recommend the recall, Reiser said.

"Virginia tested products and provided us the information, and then we have our illness investigation, and between all that, we can say, 'Yes, these illnesses [at Goshen] are associated with this product," Reiser said.

J. Michael McMahan, an environmental health supervisor with the state Health Department, said Virginia health officials obtained the box of meat July 28, one day after the department first received reports of ill campers.

In this case, we got extremely lucky that we got a box of product left we could test," McMahan said. "That's really fairly unusual in an outbreak."

The contaminated meat went from the hands of S & S Foods, a California company, to Cargill, a Minnesota company, to a single food service customer, whose name was not released by Cargill. The food service provider for Goshen Scout Reservation was Sodexo, a worldwide food service provider.

The contaminated meat traveled from California to Virginia and landed in meals eaten by boy scouts, 25 of whom have confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7. One scout is still in the hospital and has developed hemolytic uremic syndrome.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on August 07, 2008 (boomark / email).