Cattle Call: Six Western States Recall Beef

From Naiomi Shulman at SlashFood: WinCo Foods,
a food seller operating in six Western states, has issued a recall on
ground beef sold in all of its 70 stores, which are located in
California, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Utah. This is an
expansion of an earlier recall that affected only its Modesto, CA,
stores, according to the Modesto Bee.



The original recall was announced on April 10. "Two samples of ground
beef purchased at the Modesto store tested positive for E. coli
O157:H7," wrote Brian Ramsay for the Bee, and consequently all tray-packed ground beef sold from April 3 through April 9 was recalled from the stores.



Then, ongoing investigation by the USDA and the California Department
of Public Health spurred the company to extend and expand the reach of
the recall. Per a company press release,
"all fresh ground beef packed in styrofoam trays with a sale date of
March 28, 2010 through April 9, 2010" should be returned to the store
for a full refund. It's unclear where the beef became tainted; new
information, according to WinCo, may implicate the store's beef
suppliers.



E.coli, a pathogen found in animal intestines and feces, can cause
deadly food-borne illness. Most healthy people recover fully, but the
elderly, very young, and those with compromised immune systems are
particularly at risk. Luckily, no one has reported getting sick from
eating WinCo beef, but if you've got a tray of this ground beef in your
fridge, don't chance it -- bring it back to the store and get your
money back.