Detroit-Based Company Recalls Ground Beef Due To E. Coli Risk
It's been a rough autumn so far in the food industry. Just a few weeks after one variety of Aldi soft cheese was recalled for possible listeria contamination and fast food giant McDonald's battled sales impacts from an E. coli outbreak comes more contamination news. This time, the Wolverine Packing Co., a processing plant based in Detroit, is recalling over 167,000 pounds of ground beef that may be infected with a nasty strain of E. coli referred to as O157:H7.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced on its website that the contaminated meat was discovered after several Minnesota consumers fell ill. State investigators determined that they had all eaten the tainted beef prior to getting sick.
The recalled packages of meat have use by dates of November 14, 2024 and, for frozen products, bear production dates of October 22, 2024. Their USDA inspection label bears the code "EST. 2574B." The meat was shipped nationwide to both grocery stores and restaurants.
Avoid getting sick with a few simple steps
The best way to avoid illness from contaminated ground beef is not to eat it, obviously. The O157:H7 strain of E. coli is associated with gastrointestinal illness and accompanying dehydration that occurs two to eight days after ingesting the bad beef. While the majority of infections will go away within a week, some vulnerable patients (like young children, the elderly, and anyone with a compromised immune system) can suffer a secondary form of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which requires immediate medical care. Consumers who are in possession of the recalled beef are urged to dispose of it or return it to the place where it was purchased.
One of the top mistakes everyone makes when cooking beef is not using a meat thermometer to double-check the internal temperature of their food before eating. The FSIS reminds all consumers to be extra vigilant about properly storing and cooking their ground beef, including heating it to a minimum temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit to kill any harmful microorganisms like E. coli.