Whole Foods recalling possibly tainted beef

Source: MSNBC

WASHINGTON - Whole Foods Market is recalling fresh ground beef sold between June 2 through Aug. 6 because the beef might be contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

The company has received reports that seven people in Massachusetts and two people in Pennsylvania who shopped at Whole Foods Market became ill, said spokeswoman Libba Letton.

Letton said the company's recalled beef was processed at the Nebraska Beef plant linked to the E. coli outbreak this summer. Federal health authorities say there have been 49 confirmed illnesses tied to that outbreak.

The recalled beef might have been sold at Whole Foods Market stores in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, Massachusetts, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D. C., Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Canada.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26098013/

They sure don't need this kind of publicity! Most people buy from them because they believe what they buy, even though it's more expensive, that it's free from contaminats. Once that bubble gets broken, they have no marketing hook to stick around!

...I read several articles to that effect last week.

I used to make regular trips there to purchase "green" cleaning products from Seventh Generation until I learned that I could cut my trip in half by going to the local Bed, Bath & Beyond, which also carries them.

I generally avoid the local Whole Foods stores because they attract a real Birkenstock's "hippie-bordering-on-yuppie" element that...apologies in advance to anyone who fits that description...tends to make my skin crawl.

I know what you mean about the description. I see women come in wearing horse-riding costumes. But we have our farmer's too with their muddy boots. Sometimes the Earthy-types take a superior attidue with those sandles and long sweeping skirts.

Birkenstock's "hippie-bordering-on-yuppie" element that...apologies in advance to anyone who fits that description...tends to make my skin crawl.

I have no fucking respect for those people. I wish there was a way to prove it but I'm guessing about 60-70% of the people that shop at Whole Foods do it just to be stylish and hip... and show off how rich they are.

And I was gonna buy some on Tuesday when I'm in the neighborhood. Guess not.

using whole cuts...the threat of contamination then is directly related to the cleanliness of the meat room...

same potential contamination, yes....but the odds are WAY less...

the potential problem with ground beef is the end product itself...too much air in the product...

Or at least would have their own central meat rooms rather than having it handled by a large scale outside vendor.

is the requirement to disiplay the % of fat in the product. It takes rather expensive testing equipment to determine that, and most places don't want to invest in that much for a single store. It's much more efficient and of course cheaper to have all the meat ground in a central location, tested for the fat content, labeled, and sent to the retail stores.

All it takes is a broiler, broiler pan, a scale and a little math.

http://catalogues.kompass.com/catalogues/index.aspx/en/10001174/catalog16/page1?fs=std&cl=&vd=/en/10001174/catalog16/page1

These bad boys are NOT CHEAP! It would be completely impractical for each store to have one!

if he sells bad meat, he`s out of business...

Costco sirloin tips make GREAT ground beef and almost no fat renders out!

:)

...I get "boneless stew beef"...several markets here offer pretty lean varieties. It's chuck. I have the meat grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. I also have a very cool burger press from Sur La Table that lets me weigh out and press burgers that are exactly the same size, shape and weight for even cooking on the grill.

The latest issue of "Cook's Illustrated" features a recipe for what they call an "authentic Drive-In Burger" and they suggest (for 4 burgers) a mixture of 10 ounces of sirloin tips and 6 ounces boneless beef short ribs.

I recently got lazy and bought commercial ground sirloin. It was loaded with water (to pump up the weight), shrunk like hell on the grill, and tasted greasy. Never again.

:toast:

enough to cook store bought hamburger completely (155 degrees)? The only way to get E.coli from hamburger is by eating it undercooked. If you want completely safe rare ground beef you must buy roasts, sanitize your knife between each cut with the knife, trim off the entire exposed surface, then grind it yourself in a sanitized meat grinder. I am not quite that anal about mine, I routinely eat rare hamburger which is from beef cattle I raised myself and had processed at a local processor whose floors and equipment I know are as clean as humanly possible. If I happen to get sick someday it is my own fault for not cooking the meat thoroughly.