It’s not much good to announce the recall of 4,000 pounds of ground beef for E. coli O157:H7 contamination when no one knows where the beef went.  According to this report, state health officials in Texas are working with the owner of Culebra Meat Market No. 1 in San Antonio to determine which restaurants purchased meat there that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.  The report states that:

State health services officials said a routine lab test detected E. coli O157:H7 in samples collected from the meat company.  The volume of beef in recall is about 4,000 pounds, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement, and includes three cuts: beef asada, beef stew meat and ground beef produced by the company from Oct. 2 through Saturday.

Likely because there is uncertainty as to where the meat went, a list of restaurants that may have purchased the beef has not been released.  This is a common problem with recalls that greatly reduces their effectiveness in getting full information to consumers.

The products involved, according to the report:

• Products sold to consumers at the company’s retail store were packaged in various weights and wrapped in white butcher paper with no markings.
• Products sold to restaurants were packed in 10-pound boxes labeled with the company and product names and lot codes 100209 through 101709. The boxes have the inspection label “TEXAS INSP. & PSD. 740” located inside an outline of the state of Texas.