Minnesota Farmers Union

(August 28, 2009) - Meat recall notices warn consumers not to purchase or use specific meat products from specific processors or locations. And, just during this calendar year there have indeed been a number of recalls. Between January 1, 2009 and August 17, 2009, in addition to the JBS Swift recall of 380,000 pounds of assorted primal beef cuts, 9 smaller recalls were issued for E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef or fresh beef trim products. The smaller recalls involved 152,000 pounds of product. The largest was nearly 96,000 pounds while the smallest was 75 pounds.

While the recall notices serve their intended purpose of informing the consumer of the recall and the forms and processor's lot numbers in which the product was sold, there is still additional information that is not available to the public that might be helpful to concerned consumers and researchers like ourselves.

For example there is no way of easily finding out whether the recalled meat was slaughtered on the processor's site or if it came from a slaughter facility. And if the meat came from a slaughter facility, the plant that was the source of the material and the primals' lot number from which the contaminated ground beef or trim came is not made public.