In July and August of 2009, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) identified 21 cases of drug-resistant Salmonella Newport in Colorado residents. CDPHE joined with other public health agencies to investigate the Salmonella outbreak. They discovered that at least 40 individuals across the country had become ill with antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Newport infections after eating ground beef produced by Beef Packers, Inc., of Fresno, California.
Beef Packers, a subsidiary of Cargill, had distributed its ground beef products to distributors and retail stores such as Safeway and Vons in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Utah, and recalled 825,769 pounds of ground beef products for Salmonella Newport contamination on August 6, 2009. The ground beef products were produced between June 6, 2009 and June 23, 2009 at the Beef Packers Fresno plant, and were subsequently repackaged to consumer-sized packages and sold under various brand names. Safeway stores reportedly sold the ground beef as meatloaf, hamburger patties, and as ground beef.
This latest drug-resistant Salmonella outbreak follows on the heels of an earlier drug-resistant Salmonella outbreak that was traced to ground beef produced by King Soopers, Inc.