Fairbank Farms, an Ashville, NY, establishment, is recalling approximately 545,699 pounds of fresh ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. One death has been associated with this illness cluster.
The products were distributed to BJ Wholesale Clubs and Trader Joe locations within NC. Dr. Harry Wilson of NCDA & CS-Meat & Poultry contacted these locations over the weekend and found that they do not have product on hand now associated with this recall. They both sell only fresh product and destroy product after the sell by date. The sell by dates on this recall product were late September and early October. Trader Joe’s has posted a list of affected lots on their web page (http://www.traderjoes.com/static/action_issues.asp#GroundBeef ) to alert consumers that may have frozen product at home.
If you find frozen ground beef during your inspections, please check for sale-by dates between September 19 through 28, 2009. If found, please ask if these products were bought at either of the locations associated with the distribution of the recalled products. If so, these products should be destroyed.