USDA issues public health alert for Canadian company’s beef products

Meat packer’s imports may be contaminated with E. coli

The USDA announced a public health alert about raw beef, gyro meat and kebabs imported from a company in the middle of a widening food safety investigation in Canada.

Recalled products from Ryding-Regency Meat Packers Ltd., of Ontario, were distributed to institutions and retailers in Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is the recalling authority, but the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service took the extra step to spread the word to consumers with its notice.

FSIS says recalled beef manufacturing trimmings produced on May 27 and 30 were used in the U.S. to make raw non-intact beef products distributed for retail sale. The U.S. companies that produced these products were notified about the recall for possible E. coli O157:H7, FSIS says. The businesses are following instructions to recall their products from customers.

These products were part of the Canadian recall:

10-lb. cardboard boxes of bulk plastic-wrapped raw frozen ground beef gyros labeled Devanco Foods Chicago’s Favorite gyros slices/strips with case code 159 19.
10-lb. cardboard boxes of bulk plastic-wrapped raw frozen ground beef gyros labeled Kronos Halal Gyros Strips Halal-certified beef gyros uncooked, IGF strips with case code 19 159.
Retail-sized cardboard boxes of eight Ziyad Premium Quality beef hamburger patties with case code 911541.021541.
Retail-sized cardboard boxes of eight Ziyad Premium Quality uncooked kufta kabobs with case code 911154.021154.
8-lb. cardboard boxes of bulk plastic-wrapped raw frozen ground beef patties labeled Shop Right 100% pure quarter-pound ground beef hamburgers and a sell by date of 060720.
3-lb. cardboard boxes of plastic-wrapped raw frozen ground beef patties labeled Shop Right 100% pure ground beef hamburgers and a sell by date of 060720.
2-lb. cardboard boxes of eight plastic-wrapped raw frozen ground beef patties labeled Landis Brand 100% all-beef quarter-pound patties and a sell by date of 060720.

FSIS encourages people to check their freezers for the products. They should throw them out or return them to the store.

For more photos of the recalled products, go the USDA announcement.

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Rose Shilling is a previous managing editor of Food Engineering Magazine. She wrote feature stories on a variety of topics and tracked the food packaging industry. A journalist with an editing background at news services and newspapers, she also has driven editorial projects in health care and higher education.