Beef Recalls Announced

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has announced that two companies - one in Illinois and another in Idaho - have issued beef recalls. Holten Meat Incorporated - based in Sauget, Illinois - has recalled about 241-thousand pounds of ground beef product that may contain foreign materials. XL Four Star Beef, Incorporated in Nampa, Idaho has recalled about 14,500 pounds of beef primal and subprimal products that were imported from Canada and not presented for re-inspection upon entry into the United States.

The products from Holten Meat in Illinois were in 20-pound cases of "100% PURE GROUND BEEF BULK." Each case contains four five-pound Keeper Casing Chubs per box - which can be identified by the package code "12000" and the label code "1007982112000." The products were packaged for "...INSTITUTIONAL USE ONLY" - "NOT FOR RESALE."

Meanwhile - XL Four Star Beef recalled products were produced on May 22, 2009 and were distributed to various wholesalers in Arizona, California, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York and Oregon. The beef products were distributed only at the wholesale level before the recall - so none of the beef products would have reached consumers.

Both recalls are considered Class III recalls - which means the risk to health is low.