Half a million pounds of canned beef recalled due to lead contamination

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced the recall of more than 525,000 pounds of canned beef products that were sold throughout the country.

The canned beef is being recalled because it may contain unsafe amounts of lead. The affected products were produced between October 22, 2020, and March 15, 2021, by Crider Foods of Stillmore, Georgia.

Some of the products involved include Kroger Roast Beef With Gravy, Harvest Creek Roast Beef With Gravy, Armour Roast Beef With Gravy and Clover Valley Fully Cooked Roast Beef With Gravy. A full list of the affected products can be viewed online.

The lead has been linked to a spice mix used in the product that came from an outside supplier. The recall notice states: “The problem was discovered during routine surveillance sampling conducted by a state partner. In-plant verification activities conducted by Crider Foods in conjunction with FSIS found that a spice mix used from an outside source contained unsafe levels of lead.”

There are some concerns that people may have these products in their home because they have an extremely long shelf life.

Although there have not been any reports of people experiencing adverse reactions from consuming the products, those who have these products in their home should not eat them under any circumstances. Instead, they should be thrown away or returned to the place where they were purchased.

Lead exposure is extremely dangerous. Exposure to high levels of the toxic heavy metal can cause kidney and brain damage as well as weakness and anemia, while exposure to very high levels could cause death. Lead poisoning is particularly dangerous to children and pregnant women, who can pass the lead they are exposed to on to their unborn child, leading to stillbirth or miscarriage or harming the baby’s nervous system, intelligence and behavior.

Other recalls and food safety alerts

Canned beef is not the only food to be subjected to a recent recall. Simple Mills issued a voluntary recall of its Fine Ground Sea Salt Almond Flour Crackers because of a mix-up in packaging that caused some of the boxes to be filled with their Farmhouse Cheddar Almond Flour Crackers instead. This means that consumers may not be aware of the presence of milk in the crackers and could suffer from an allergic reaction. The crackers were sold at popular retailers such as Publix, Target, Walmart and Kroger.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a food safety alert over a salmonella outbreak that has been linked to seafood. The seafood in question was distributed by Northeast Seafood Products of Denver and was sold at the seafood counters in Colorado grocery stores such as Albertson’s, Sprouts and Safeway. The affected fish includes monkfish, grouper, ocean perch, haddock, Pacific cod, Coho salmon, halibut, red snapper, Atlantic salmon, tilapia, Pacific sole and several other varieties; a full list can be viewed on the CDC’s website.

So far, more than 100 people have become sick from consuming the seafood and 19 people have been hospitalized across 14 states, with the majority of cases being recorded in Colorado. Although the products were distributed to the grocery stores fresh, they may have been frozen by the business or consumers.

Individuals are advised not to eat or cook the food and either throw it away or return it to the store where it was purchased. Those who have consumed it should seek medical attention right away if they experience severe salmonella symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration or a high fever.

Sources for this article include:

KING5.com

FSIS.USDA.gov

CDC.gov