The Food Safety and Inspection Service is warning that some ground beef products may be tainted with E. coli. The more than a dozen potentially contaminated products were produced by the Greater Omaha Packing Co., and include both patties and tubes of raw ground beef, according to the FSIS public health alert issued on Saturday.
The type of E. coli that the ground beef products could have "is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause dehydration, bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps 2-8 days after exposure," FSIS said. It is responsible for over one-third of the total 265,000 yearly cases of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli illnesses that arise in America, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated.
said the ground beef products subject to Saturday’s public health alert haven’t led to any people getting sick to date. Consumers can throw the meat in the trash or take it back to the retailer, according to the agency. Greater Omaha Packing produces beef that goes to over 70 countries.