According to a USDA Press Release issued on June 24, 2009, "JBS Swift Beef Company, a Greeley, Colo., establishment is recalling approximately 41,280 pounds of beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7."  The USDA Press Release can be found here: www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_034_2009_Release/index.asp

If the location of Greeley, Colorado sounds familar, that is because it has been the source of contaminated meat before, most notably in 2002, when the plant was still owned and operated by ConAgra.  At the time, the recall was the second biggest in U.S. history.  According to a news report at the time:

A report by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) inspector general blames both federal meat inspectors and ConAgra Beef Co. for errors that led to a multistate outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections and an 18 million–pound ground beef recall last year.

USDA meat inspectors and the company largely ignored evidence of E coli O157:H7 contamination that began cropping up at the Greeley, Colo., plant in January 2001, more than a year before the recall and illness outbreak in May and June of 2002, according to the report. The plant was later sold to Swift Foods Co.

"Our audit found that neither ConAgra nor FSIS [the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service] effectively fulfilled their responsibilities" under the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, states the report from the office of Inspector General Phyllis K. Fong. HACCP has been the guiding strategy for the federal meat inspection program since 1998.

The report says the FSIS cited ConAgra for fecal contamination on beef carcasses many times before the recall but took no strong enforcement action and that most FSIS inspectors at the time of the recall were not competent to evaluate the plant’s HACCP program. The inspector general also concluded that poor record-keeping and red tape made the recall slow and ineffective.

Of course, the current recall is nowhere near as large as the one in 2002. (It involved meat produced on April 21st and 22nd that was shipped to distributors and establishments in Colorado, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.) 

Moreover,  the fact of the discovery of this contaminated meat may show that the USDA is finally getting better at prevention instead of merely reacting.  But, seeing yet another recall linked to this Greeley plant, I can’t help but to think of that famous French phrase: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. (The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

To see the list of recalled products, please clcik Continue Reading. 

  • Boxes of "USDA CHOICE OR HIGHER, Bnls Beef Bottom Sirloin, Butt Ball Tip 2/DN S/T." Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, identifying package dates of "042109" or "042209" and a case code of "21852."
  • Boxes of "USDA CHOICE OR HIGHER, Bnls Beef Bottom Sirloin, Butt Ball Tip 2/UP S/T." Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, identifying package dates of "042109" or "042209" and a case code of "21853."
  • Boxes of "Swift, Bnls Beef Bottom Sirloin, Butt Ball Tip 2/DN S/T." Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, identifying package dates of "042109" or "042209" and a case code of "31852."
  • Boxes of "Bnls Beef Bottom Sirloin, Butt Ball Tip 2/UP S/T." Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, identifying package dates of "042109" or "042209" and a case code of "31853."
  • Boxes of "Swift, USDA SELECT, Bnls Beef Bottom Sirloin, Butt Ball Tip 2/DN S/T." Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, identifying package dates of "042109" or "042209" and a case code of "33852."
  • Boxes of "USDA SELECT, Bnls Beef Bottom Sirloin, Butt Ball Tip 2/UP S/T." Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, identifying package dates of "042109" or "042209" and a case code of "33853."
  • Boxes of "BLACK ANGUS, Swift Premium, BEEF, USDA CHOICE OR HIGHER, Bnls Beef Bottom Sirloin, Butt Ball Tip 2/UP S/T." Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, identifying package dates of "042109" or "042209" and a case code of "41853."
  • Boxes of "BLACK ANGUS, Swift Premium, BEEF, USDA CHOICE OR HIGHER, Bnls Beef Bottom Sirloin, Butt Ball Tip 2/UP S/T." Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, identifying package dates of "042109" or "042209" and a case code of "41853."
  • Boxes of "Bnls Beef Bottom Sirloin, Butt Ball Tip 2/DN S/T." Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, an identifying package date of "042109" and a case code of "79852."
  • Boxes of "Bnls Beef Bottom Sirloin, Butt Ball Tip 2/UP S/T." Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, an identifying package date of "042109" and a case code of "79853."
  • Boxes of "USDA CHOICE OR HIGHER, Bnls Beef Bottom Sirloin, Butt Ball Tip 2/UP S/T." Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, identifying package dates of "042109" or "042209" and a case code of "90853."