Meat Recall 2014: California Company Recalls Close To 9 Million Pounds Of Tainted Meat Over Improper Inspection
Northern California-based Rancho Feeding Co. has issued a voluntary recall of close to 9 million lbs. of tainted meat that did not receive proper inspection protocol. The United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service highlighted that this is the company’s second product recall within a month following Jan. 13’s recall of over 40,000 lbs. of uninspected meat.
Thursday’s recall was categorized under Class I, the most serious of all three classes with a possibility of serious health consequences. Under the USDA’s Recall Classifications, Class I, “This is a health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.”
Amounting to 8,742,700 lbs. of diseased and unsound meat, products up for recall include: beef carcasses, beef heads, beef blood, beef oxtail, beef cheeks, beef lips, beef omasum, beef tripas, mountain oysters, sweet breads, beef liver, beef tripe, beef tongue, veal cuts, veal bones, beef feet, beef hearts, and veal trim. These products have been considered “adulterated, because they are unsound, unwholesome, or otherwise are unfit for human food and must be removed from commerce.”
Products involved in the recall are marked “EST. 527” inside their USDA seal of inspection and feature a case code number ending in “3” or “4.” Beef carcasses and boxes were produced between Jan. 1, 2013 and Jan. 7, 2014 and were shipped to locations in California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas. As of now, the USDA has received no reports of illness or adverse health side effects from people who have consumed any of these products.
Anyone who has consumed products from Rancho Feeding Co. and has begun to experience disease-like symptoms should notify their health care provider as soon as possible.