By Alice Seeley
On April 25, the Food and Drug Administration announced that Lakeside Refrigerated Services is recalling more than 60 tons of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli.
The beef products recalled were produced from Feb. 1 through April 8 and sold under brands including Thomas Farms, Nature’s Reserve, Marketside Butcher, Weis, and Tajima. All of the products subject to the recall have the establishment number “EST. 46841” inside the USDA mark of inspection, according to the notice. The full list of recalled product codes and images of the product labels are published on the USDA website.
The possibility of contamination was discovered during routine testing of imported products linked to Lakeside Refrigerated Services, a Swedesboro company, according to the Food Safety and Inspection Service. The FSIS is especially concerned about the possibility of E. coli 0103, which can make people ill between two and eight days after eating contaminated food.
Most people infected experience diarrhea and vomiting, but some may develop a more severe illness, including an uncommon type of kidney failure characterized by easy bruising, pallor, and decreased urine output. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) urged people with those symptoms to get immediate emergency medical care. The CDC stated that many strains of E. Coli are harmless and live in the intestines of healthy humans and animals, but those that produce Shiga toxin cause disease and estimates that there are 265,000 STEC infections each year in the United States.
There have been no reported cases of illness due to the consumption of these products, the FSIS stated in a news release. However, the FSIS’s main concern is that the ground beef may be in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers. The FSIS advised all consumers to throw away or return the recalled products to where they were purchased.
Consumers with questions regarding the recall can contact Lakeside Refrigerated Services at 800-493-9042 or [email protected].
