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Accidental Beef Shipment Retrieved

By Dan Flynn and Suzanna Schreck

A California company says it has retrieved approximately 7,875 pounds of cooked, ready-to-eat ground beef patties that may have been contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes and  inadvertently distributed, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) news release. 
United Food Group, a Vernon, CA. recalled 22.5-pound cases of "Fully Cooked Black Angus Ground Beef Steak Patties." Each case contained 75 individual 4.8-ounce patties. Each package had the establishment number "EST. 31835" inside the USDA mark of inspection, a use-by date of "10-11-2011," and was marked with either "LINE #31" or "LINE #32." The product subject to recall was produced on Oct. 11, 2010, and shipped to a single distributor in California for further distribution to institutional users, the FSIS.
Although the FSIS characterized this as a Class I recall, the agency's news release said "it should be noted that the product has been used and is no longer available in commerce."  The FSIS said the company discovered, while conducting a year-end inventory, that the implicated product placed on hold was inadvertently shipped into commerce. As a result, the company conducted a recall and retrieved and destroyed any remaining beef patties.
FSIS and the company have received no reports of illnesses associated with consumption of the beef. 
Questions about the recall should be directed to the company's Executive Vice President for Food Safety & Quality Assurance, Timothy P. Biela at 817-271-9146. 

Full post as published by Food Safety News on January 19, 2011 (boomark / email).