The latest beef recall is turning out to be a food disaster. JBS Swift & Company had originally issued a recall for 41,000 lbs of beef; now, JBS has expanded its recall to include over 380,000 lbs of beef. That is 190 tons of products or 9 times more than they previously recalled.
There are numerous factors involved in this recall that are disturbing. First, this appears to be the summer of E. coli O157:H7 recalls. It’s only June and we already have had the Valley Meat E. coli scare, the Nestle cookie catastrophe and now the JBS Swift mass recall.
Also, the beef processed by JBS Swift is often sold to smaller vendors who can take the whole beef products and make their own smaller cuts and ground beef. What that means is that the risk associated with these tainted beef products rises exponentially. Not only is all the beef now susceptible to E. coli, but the machines used to grind the meat, the utensils used to trim the meat, the meat trimmings and the surfaces where the meat was prepared are all now potentially contaminated.
Another point of concern is that, since much of the recalled beef was processed in late April, it is quite likely that numerous individuals and their families have been exposed to E. coli O157:H7 in the JBS Swift products. According to the CDC, for every reported foodborne illness, about 35 to 50 people do not report their illness to their doctors or health departments.
If we are to believe, as the CDC does, that this national cluster of 18 E. coli O157:H7 illnesses are related to JBS Swift; using the CDC’s own mathematical extrapolations, we could expect that there are as many as 900 people who have become ill from JBS Swift & Company tainted meat. With complications, such as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), and the extent of sickness associated with an E. coli O157:H7, the unreported cases are of grave concern.
It is imperative that you see a doctor if you believe you have contracted a foodborne illness. It isn’t just about your health, but the health of others who may have contracted the same foodborne illness and may need your diagnosis to help the CDC and health departments nail down the contamination source.
We will continue to work with the FDA, CDC and the victims of the JBS Swift E. coli contamination to nail down the facts and try to make some sense from this recall.
