For the fifth time since May 4th, the Food Safety & Inspection Service (FSIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a "Class I, High Health Risk" recall due to contamination of beef by E. coli O157:H7.
The latest recall involves just 75 pounds of fresh beef trim products from Snow Creek Meat Processing in Seneca, SC. The bad meat was discovered through FSIS microbiological sampling.
The Snow Creek recall brings the total amount of beef recalled so far this year to 140,909 pounds. The first E. coli-related recall of both 2009 and to occur during the Obama administration of FSIS came on May 4th when Alex & George Wholesale recalled 4,663 pounds of beef it had sold to western New York restaurants.
Routine FSIS testing was credited with discovering of the E. coli problem at Alex and George, and again in the second recall on May 12th when Bob’s Food City in Hot Springs, AK sought return of 375 pounds.
However, the third recall of ’09 and the biggest so far this year involving Illinois-based Valley Meats LLC was found through trace-backs after the Ohio Health Department identified a cluster of E. coli victims.
Last Tuesday’s recall of almost 40,000 pounds of ground beef products with possible E. coli 0157:H7 contamination by Portland, OR-based SP Provisions also came about due to FSIS testing.
Today’s recall by Snow Creek is for various sizes of Cryovac bags of "BEEF TRIMMINGS, BEEF ITEM" packed in boxes. Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 20478" inside the USDA mark of inspection and a "Sell By" date of "06/02/09."
These fresh beef trim products were produced on June 2, 2009, and were distributed to retail establishments for further processing in North Carolina and South Carolina.