Sep 26, 2007 6:08 am US/Eastern
E. Coli Scare Forces Topps Beef Patty Recall
ALBANY (AP) ―
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New York officials are warning consumers not to eat certain Topps brand hamburgers because they might be contaminated with a strain of E. coli bacteria. (File)
AP
New York officials are warning consumers not to eat certain Topps brand hamburgers because they might be contaminated with a strain of E. coli bacteria believed responsible for an outbreak of illness in several Northeastern states.
The frozen ground beef patties were produced on June 22, July 12 or July 23 and were distributed to food service institutions in the New York metropolitan area and to retail establishments nationwide by the Topps Meat Company, based in Elizabeth, N.J., state Agriculture Department officials said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service later announced that Topps was voluntarily recalling 331,582 pounds of frozen ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli, citing an investigation into a cluster of illnesses in the Northeast by New York and federal health officials.
The announcement did not list other states. Calls to the USDA were not immediately returned Tuesday night.
Six New York cases of illness have been identified, in Albany, Monroe, Herkimer and Washington counties. Three people were hospitalized. All are getting better, said state Health Department spokeswoman Claudia Hutton. The agency discovered the contamination after people got sick and officials tested the Topps hamburgers remaining in one victim's home freezer.
"It's the same strain that matches a multistate outbreak," Hutton said. "It's not a pandemic. It's just that there are cases in New York, Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania."
Federal officials are trying to track down the source of the beef, Hutton said.
Cortney McMahon, spokeswoman for Topps, said the company is "fully cooperating the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make sure all customers are informed and the potentially contaminated products are properly disposed of."
At least one New York-based grocery chain had removed all Topps brand meat products from its shelves before the state Department of Agriculture and Markets issued its warning Tuesday afternoon. Executives of Price Chopper Supermarkets, which has 116 stores in six Northeast states, decided to remove the products as soon as they got preliminary test results from the state, said company spokeswoman Maureen Murphy.
Consumers who bought any of the Topps hamburgers in question are being asked to return them to the store.
Hutton said cooking beef until it is no longer pink—at an internal temperature of 160 degrees—will kill the bacteria. "Nowadays we believe it's good advice to cook all beef thoroughly."
E. coli causes intestinal illness that generally clears up within a week for adults but can be deadly for the very young, elderly people and those with compromised immune systems. Symptoms include stomach cramps that may be severe, vomiting, diarrhea that may turn bloody within one to three days, and in extreme cases kidney failure.
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