E. Coli Illnesses Prompt Beef Recall

Supermarkets across the country are pulling from their shelves more than 530,000 pounds of beef that may be contaminated with E. coli in the wake of an Agriculture Department warning that the beef supplied by a Nebraska company may be responsible for at least 40 illnesses.
The company, Nebraska Beef Ltd. of Omaha, recalled the beef produced since May after some of its products, sold by the Kroger Company with sell-by dates of May 21 to July 5, was linked to reports of illnesses in Ohio and Michigan, the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said on Tuesday.
In addition to Michigan, Nebraska Beef reported some of the contaminated products were distributed in Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania. Other beef products were reportedly sent to Colorado and Texas for further processing, although it was not immediately clear whether any contaminated beef was sold in the other states.
Nonetheless, some Ralphs supermarkets — a grocery chain owned by Kroger — pulled the ground beef from its stores in Southern California in response to the recall, The Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.
The legal counsel for Nebraska Beef was not immediately available for comment.
The Agriculture Department has labeled the recall Class I, which carries a high health risk. More cases are likely because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that for every incident of E. coli that is reported, 20 go unreported.
E. coli can cause severe illness and even death in humans. Symptoms include stomach cramps and diarrhea.