Topps Meat Co. has expanded a recall of ground beef from about 300,000 pounds to 21.7 million pounds, one of the largest meat recalls in U.S. history.

The recalled products are all ground beef patties with various brand names. They may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, a bacterium that can cause severe diarrhea and cramps, as well as other complications.

Check your freezers, folk, for those hamburgers at a really great price.

The ground beef products being recalled have a “sell by date” or a “best if used by date” between September 25, 2007, and September 25, 2008, Topps’ statement said. The packages also have the marking “Est. 9748” inside the USDA mark of inspection.

I like that part about the USDA mark of inspection. Gives me a feeling of confidence in our government.



  1. Mister Mustard says:

    >>Gives me a feeling of confidence in our government.

    Gives me a feeling of confidence in goods produced in America, too. At least most people don’t eat Barbie Dolls.

  2. GigG says:

    24.79 billion pounds of beef was produced in the US in 2006. This recall is for less than 1/1000th that amount. That’s not to bad a safety record.

    That said why would anyone buy these preprocessed patties? They aren’t that much cheaper than that ground at the supermarket.

  3. Janky-o says:

    #2, how many people will eat this 21.7 million pounds of beef? Is it okay if only 0.1% of them die from e. coli?

    It’s good to be a vegetarian. Except for the E. Coli infected spinach…

  4. erik says:

    #3 commenting on #2 – this is why beancounters are even more dangerous than Christians running the government.

  5. Mister Mustard says:

    >>After that, who’s up for a nice rare or medium rare burger?

    I buy my beef from local farms, freshly ground (or butchered), so I’m certainly up for a nice rare or medium rare burger. YUMM! With lettuce, tomato, and plenty of jalapeño pepper! *drool*

    Anybody who buys frozen/ bulk packed shit from ConAgra gets what they deserve.

  6. #6 – MM,

    Ack. And, I’d add, especially if it’s shrink wrapped. The stuff that’s on a styofoam (yecch) bed with saran wrap around it isn’t too horrifically bad. The stuff that comes shrink wrapped may have had carbon monoxide added to keep that nice fresh red look to the meat indefinitely.

    You can leave a steak that was packed with CO out on the counter for a month and it will still be nice and red looking, rancid as hell, but nice and red. And, they don’t have to say so on the packaging anywhere. Rrralph!!

  7. Nimby says:

    #6 – E.coli is almost always a contaminate of feces. Chances are cows skilled by your local farmer/abatoire still have shit in ’em.

    Cook your meat folks. No E.coli!

  8. Ben Waymark says:

    Nimby E.coli is almost always a contaminate of feces. Chances are cows killed by your local farmer/abatoire still have shit in ‘em.

    A good butcher will slice the cow open without cutting the intestines and letting the shit out….

    …. buy from people who know what they are doing and aren’t trying to do it the cheapest way possible with unskilled labor. Then eat your steak tartar and enjoy it too!

  9. Mark Derail says:

    Time to be eco-conscious not only for your health, but your very survival.

  10. Mister Mustard says:

    >>Chances are cows skilled by your local farmer/abatoire still
    >>have shit in ‘em.

    They undoubtedly have shit IN them, but I generally don’t eat the intestines. And they’re not raised on factory farms, packed in like sardines, trampling through tons of cow shit their whole lives, so they’re somewhat cleaner than your average ConAgra cow.

    Time to FIRE UP THE GRILLE!

  11. TIHZ_HO says:

    Maybe now after years of disinfectants, anti – bacterial hand washes and so on has turned down the immune system so much American’s have become “the boy in the bubble”, forced to live in a sterile environment.

    European food vendors handle food and money which frightens Americans used to plastic gloves and tongs.

    Lets not even talk about China where even if you can find soap in the rest-rooms it doesn’t matter anyway as Chinese rarely wash their hands after #1 and seldom after #2.

    That’s may take anyway…

    Cheers

  12. TIHZ_HO says:

    [Duplicate post. – ed.]

  13. TIHZ_HO says:

    Opps sorry about the double post…

    Cheers

  14. TIHZ_HO says:

    #11 “They undoubtedly have shit IN them, but I generally don’t eat the intestines. ”

    A very popular dish in China is pig intestines – only slightly washed so as not to destroy the “taste”. I never tried it by my wife likes them…

    What makes it even more disgusting (if that is possible) is the fact that Chinese pigs love to eat fresh human shit! Free range pigs have been known to run down people havening a swat in the rush to “get ’em while they’re hot!”

    Cheers

  15. undissembled says:

    I got some of those Sams Club 80/20 burgers and I have eaten 90% so far… Not sick yet… Should I throw the other 10%?

  16. Mister Mustard says:

    >>A very popular dish in China is pig intestines – only slightly
    >>washed so as not to destroy the “taste”.

    That’s just gross.

    Even recipes for haggis have instructions to “carefully remove all fecal material” and wash out the guts before you pack in the lungs, etc. to make them.

    And I’ll bet all that Scotch whiskey they drink while eating haggis kills all the bacteria anyway. Although Robert Burns died at 37, so maybe they weren’t cleaning the dingleberries as carefully as they should have.

  17. Jägermeister says:

    “best if used by date” between September 25, 2007, and September 25, 2008

    What the heck are they putting in the meat to make it last that long? Thank goodness we buy our meat directly from the farmer.

  18. Mister Mustard says:

    >>“best if used by date” between September 25, 2007, and
    >>September 25, 2008…

    What are you reading that from, a bottle of Lysol disinfectant? You can’t be reading it off of a meat package.

  19. #19 – MM,

    From the CNN article:

    The ground beef products being recalled have a “sell by date” or a “best if used by date” between September 25, 2007, and September 25, 2008, Topps’ statement said.

  20. Mister Mustard says:

    >>From the CNN article:

    Oh, I thought he was reading it off of something in his fridge. So it’s factory-farmed frozen beef patties; I’m surprised it has an expiration date at all!

    Besides, anyone who would eat that shit would probably cook their burger “well-done+++” anyway, so no harm done. Nothing like carbonizing beef to get rid of the microbes. The only more effective way would be to cremate it, and eat the ashes.

  21. Angel H. Wong says:

    #2

    “this is why beancounters are even more dangerous than Christians running the government.”

    If you haven’t noticed, right now your country is run by Christians and so far it hasn’t fared spectacularly well.

    #12

    “Maybe now after years of disinfectants, anti – bacterial hand washes and so on has turned down the immune system so much American’s have become “the boy in the bubble”, forced to live in a sterile environment.”

    The same thing can be applied to Canada, a friend went to work there for 10 years and then returned to Honduras to spend his vacation with his family, he spend about 3 days with diarrhea and stomach cramps because he got used to extra sanitized North American food.

    My advise to those visiting places outside the US and Canada is quite simple: Keep you nails trimmed to keep dirt from accumulating there and if the street food vendor looks dirty, then its dirty.

  22. Mister Mustard says:

    >>If you haven’t noticed, right now your country is run by Christians

    Oh no it’s not. It’s being run by evil, warmongering, money-grubbing, hypocritical fuckwits who invoke the name of Jesus to justify their desecration of America.

    Sounds kinda like the Anti-Christ to me.

  23. Angel H. Wong says:

    #23

    “Oh no it’s not. It’s being run by evil, warmongering, money-grubbing, hypocritical fuckwits who invoke the name of Jesus to justify their desecration of America.”

    That eerily fits perfectly the profile of a televangelist.

  24. #23, 24,

    The anti-Christ will be an atheist, one who neither believes in nor invokes the name of Christ. Even Satan doesn’t work as a true anti-Christ because, by definition, if he existed, he would believe. To really oppose Christ would be to oppose the very foundation of his mythology, right at the source, faith itself.

  25. Angel H. Wong says:

    #25

    The Anti-Christ is going to be someone with a ton of charisma and problably pose as a great Christian leader.

    And he will eat meat.

  26. Mister Mustard says:

    >>That eerily fits perfectly the profile of a televangelist.

    Correct.

    However, the anti-Christ will NOT eat meat. Meat is God’s gift to humanity. And if he did eat meat, it would be after the meat has burned in a lake of fiiiiiiire (i.e., cooked well done).

  27. Joshua says:

    #2…GigG….there are almost no super markets grinding their own ground beef anymore. Thats why these Ecoli outbreaks are so serious…..back in the day of each market grinding their own beef, if there was a screw up, it only affected the customers at that particular store. Now with almost all of the large chains buying the beef pre-ground and packaged to save butcher’s union saleries, if there’s a screw up it could affect an entire region of millions.
    Since I’m not at home where we raise our own beef, I go to a regular butcher, and buy whole cuts and grind my own ground beef…..usually tri-tip or round. If I screw up…I’m the only one to die(and the dogs) 🙂

  28. ECA says:

    Anyone understand the REASONING for having LOCAL foods rather then SHIPPED in foods at the store??
    Idaho is trying to pass a LAW, about Useing STATE resources FIRST for stores, rather then shipping it in from 12 states away..
    It puts THOSE int he state to work, as well as making MORE companies to do the work.

  29. iGlobalWarmer says:

    The Antichrist is named Hillary and is running for President.

    The annoying thing about this latest meat scare is the lack of choice. I’d prefer not to have poop mixed into my meat since I usually like to eat it by itself as a side dish.

  30. #30 – iGW,

    Sorry, no. Hillary is not the anti-Christ. Hillary is very much pro-Christ. Too much so for my taste. Read Hillary’s Prayer from Mother Jones, a truly great news journal.


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