IBP Recalls Nearly 300,000 Lbs. of Ground Beef

The nation's largest beef producer, IBP Inc., has recalled 282,000 pounds of ground beef after USDA inspectors discovered one sample tainted with E.coli O157:H7.

The ground beef was produced by an IBP plant in Geneseo, IL, on April 14, a USDA spokeswoman said. Although only one sample tested positive for the E.coli 0157:H7 bacteria, the company recalled all the ground beef produced that day and shipped to 50 retail and food-service customers.

Because the product is fresh meat typically processed by grocers or restaurants, there is no product code or production lot numbers for consumers to check on meat in their refrigerators.

IBP said it is installing steam cabinets to kill bacteria on the surface of carcasses, in addition to the company's existing policy of vacuuming them to clean the surface.

The USDA is also currently rolling out an HACCP program that will eventually require all U.S. meat and poultry plants to identify processing stages where contamination can occur and take steps to prevent it. So far this year, 13 plants have been briefly shut by USDA for failing to use the new system.

Last fall, IBP Inc. purchased Hudson Foods' Columbus, NE raw ground-beef patty processing plant, in the wake of the 25-million pound recall of product from the facility.

Edited by Pam Ahlberg