Ground Beef Sold at Some Stores Could be Contaminated

A Nationwide health alert has been issued for a popular brand of ground beef over potential E. coli risk.

If you've been out to eat at a restaurant recently or purchased ground beef and cooked it at home and developed a stomach issue after eating the reason could be the beef you ate as a brand used by many restaurants and retail locations could be contaminated.

Greater Omaha beef

A nationwide health alert has been issued for Greater Omaha ground beef products that could be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 according to WTEN. The impacted raw ground beef items were produced and packaged on March 28, 2024, and have a "Use/Freeze by" date of April 22, 2024. Affected products also have "EST.960A" on the inside of the USDA mark of inspection and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the ground beef was shipped to restaurants and retail locations throughout the country.

The following products are part of the Nationwide alert:

How Does This Happen?

Alerts similar to this have happened numerous times and many wonder how does something like this happen? In this case, the problem was discovered by Greater Omaha Beef while they were conducting an inventory of a product that was on hold because it tested positive for E. coli. While it was on hold the company inadvertently used a portion of the contaminated beef to produce ground beef products that they subsequently shipped into commerce according to Food Safety News. Once they realized what happened they reported the issue to the FSIS and the alert was issued.

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No Confirmed Illnesses

The particular strain of Escherichia coli mentioned above is known to cause severe intestinal infection in humans but thankfully there have been no confirmed reports of any illnesses due to consuming the affected raw beef products. If you are feeling unwell after consuming the ground beef, you should contact a healthcare provider according to the alert.

Health Alert VS Recall?

A health alert was issued instead of a recall because the affected products are no longer for sale and just in case some might have them in their freezers. If you do have any of the products listed above FSIS is advising against consuming them, instead, they should be thrown away or they should be returned to wherever they were purchased.