THE LATEST GROUND BEEF RECALL

Well, here's another U.S. ground beef recall because of E.coli 0157:H7 contamination. This is the fourth ground beef recall this year, not counting mislabelling or allergen issues, and it won't be the last. A note of sarcasm: the fact that most of the products sold were "natural" did not help at all (If you have read the book, you'll know what I think of the "natural" label the way it is currently used).

These potentially contaminated ground beef products were produced a couple of weeks ago by Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, of Arkansas City, Kansas and sold as cases of large 10lb chubs to firms in Ariz., Calif., Ga., Ind., Iowa, Mo., N.C., Ohio, Pa. and Wash. for further processing and/or distribution. This, of course, makes it worse. It means that the ground beef was most likely repackaged and is being sold to us consumers in smaller packages under who-knows-what label.

The USDA (which regulates meat in the US) says it will let us know once it finds out (Read..when all those firms that received the product get over their panic attacks and put out their own recalls). Great..In the meantime, maybe we should just not eat ground beef of any kind unless we are sure that it was ground on the premises of the store from whole meat.

For the record, here's the list of what is being recalled, although it won't do you much good to look for these huge cases or chubs in your local store:

--Approx. 40-pound cases of "BEEF FINE GRIND 81/19 NATURAL," containing 10-pound chubs. These products have an identifying product code of "80185."
--Approx. 40-pound cases of "BEEF CHUCK FINE GRIND 81/19 NATURAL," containing 10-pound chubs. These products have an identifying product code of "80285."
--Approx. 40-pound cases of "BEEF SIRLOIN FINE GRIND 91/9 NATURAL," containing 10-pound chubs. These products have an identifying product code of "80495."
--Approx. 40-pound cases of "BEEF FINE GRIND 90/10 NATURAL," containing 5-pound chubs. These products have an identifying product code of "85165."
--Approx. 60-pound cases of "BEEF FINE GROUND 93/7," containing 10-pound chubs. These products have an identifying product code of "86191."

The best way to be safe is still to cook your ground meat very well - and be careful when handling it too.

TSF