Saturday, April 17, 2010

USDA AWOL On WinCo Foods' Ground Beef Recall

Yesterday, WinCo Foods (headquartered in Boise, ID) recalled ground beef sold at all of its stores between March 26th and April 9th, after learning that meat from one of its suppliers may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. The supplier was not identified.

The chain-wide recall is an expansion of an April 10th recall of meat from WinCo's Modesto, California store.

WinCo Foods is a regional supermarket chain with stores in California, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington states and Reno, Nevada.

According to its news release, WinCo initiated the expanded ground beef recall at the recommendation of the California Department of Public Health, and ". . . consistent with the ongoing investigation by USDA . . ." No illnesses have been confirmed in association with this recall.

Neither the California Department of Public Health nor USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have posted any information on this recall or on the investigation.

Why has FSIS not posted either the original recall notice or yesterday's expanded notice? This is a multistate Class 1 (highest health risk) recall and its oversight is the responsibility of FSIS.

Shame on USDA/FSIS for requiring WinCo Foods to shoulder the entire burden of informing the public about this food safety recall!!


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5 comments:

  1. is it just the styrofoam packed meat or all of it? cause we bought the long tube one in the red package on the 9th but we havent used it yet.

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  2. @Anonymous: It's just the styrofoam packed meat, according to the WinCo news release, which says, "The product under recall is all fresh ground beef packed in styrofoam trays with a sale date of March 28, 2010 through April 9, 2010."

    Meat sold in the long tubes ('chubs") has not been recalled.

    Phyllis

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  3. Alright thank you!

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  4. Thank you for posting this as I have one of those Styrofoam packages purchased within those dates sitting in my freezer right now. I'd like to make a comment here to hopefully make some people aware of a HUGE concern I have regarding a Stockton, California Winco.

    I became very physically ill will e. coli & of course could not determine the source of the illness however I don't eat out and I don't eat raw nor undercooked meat. I was hospitalized for 9 days and was extremely, extremely ill.

    Scared to death, of course, I came home and started checking the expiration dates on all my packages of dry goods and meat products I had purchased from Winco within only a 2 month to 1 week ago time frame.

    I cannot believe what I discovered.

    1 pkgd brand name 'Budding' lunch meat was over expired by 2 months! [when i opened it a rancid smell over powered me and the meat was turning to mush-ive never experienced that in my life, it was beyond disguisting]

    1 pkgd brand name Bar-S Beef Hot Dogs expires the end of this month (May 2010)

    3 dry goods, boxed food items, all different products have expiration date,-not 'best if used by' dates mind you.. but real expiration dates ranging from June 2010 to July 2010.

    I know this comment may seem a wee vague but I'm disabled and I cannot type for long, I'm sorry. However the point I want to make is I'm just appalled at the thought of food being sold in such condition. I'm almost positive I contracted my illness from eating something from Winco that was outdated.

    Please, anybody whom reads this just be an aware consumer and do not check only the meat and dairy expiration dates but check for anything! purchased at Winco. Or better yet.. my advice..don't shop there at all.

    Kerry Ann

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  5. @Kerry Ann. Thank for sharing your story and for reminding everyone how important it always is to check expiration/best before dates on all items.

    Phyllis

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