Federal officials have begun releasing names of specific grocery stores and other businesses that received some of the 6.9 million pounds of recalled ground beef and non-intact beef products that are linked to a Salmonella Newport outbreak.

Public health officials have confirmed that 57 people across 16 states have been infected, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). JBS Tolleson Inc. of Tolleson, AZ, shipped the beef nationwide.

The recalled beef is packaged under a variety of names, including Showcase, which is sold by Walmart, and the Kroger brand. Other brands affected by the recall include:

Cedar River Farms;

Comnor Perfect Choice;

Gourmet Burger;

Grass Run Farms; and

JBS Generic.

JBS Tolleson initiated a recall Oct. 4. All of the recalled products had the establishment number “EST. 267” printed inside the USDA mark of inspection when JBS sold them, but portions of bulk quantities that were repackaged by retailers and other JBS customers likely do not have any establishment numbers. 

The JBS records show the company shipped the beef to retail locations and institutions — such as schools, hospitals and other foodservice operations —  nationwide, according to the FSIS. The country’s largest foodservice supplier, US Foods, is on the list of companies that bought the beef now under recall.

Yesterday the FSIS posted a partial list of specific stores that received the recalled ground beef and non-intact beef products. The agency will post more lists when investigators have determined additional store names and locations. As of Oct. 7 the retailer list included some locations of the following grocery stores:  

Savemart

FoodMaxx

Lucky

Harveys Supermarket

Winn Dixie Supermarket

Sprouts

S-Mart

Maxx Value

Lucky California

Super King Market

Jons Market Place

Lucky’s Market

Save Mart

 A list of products shipped by JBS Tolleson that are included in the recall are listed on the FSIS website. Some are bulk packages that are not available to consumers.

Company records show JBS packaged the recalled beef products from July 26 through Sept. 7. There is concern that consumers, restaurants and institutional kitchens may have some of the implicated beef in freezers. Freezing temperatures do not kill Salmonella.

As of Oct. 4, eight of the infected patients had provided sales receipts or shopper loyalty card numbers that assisted outbreak investigators in their traceback efforts.

“FSIS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state public health and agriculture partners have now determined that raw ground beef was the probable source of the reported illnesses. Traceback has identified JBS as the common supplier of the ground beef products,” according to the recall notice. 

Anyone who has eaten any of the recalled beef and developed symptoms of Salmonella infection should seek medical attention and tell their doctors about the possible exposure to the pathogen. The most common symptoms of salmonellosis are diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever within 12 to 72 hours after eating contaminated food. Symptoms usually lasts 4 to 7 days in otherwise healthy adults. In some cases, however, the diarrhea may be so severe that the patient needs to be hospitalized. Older adults, children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are more likely to develop a severe illness.

Greeley, CO-based JBS USA is the American food processing company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of JBS S.A., a Brazilian company that is the world’s largest beef producer.

JBS SA is the world’s largest protein producer. It has 36 Brazilian production facilities. The multi-national company has annual sales of more than $30 billion, of which half were generated by the JBS USA subsidiary, according to a 2017 financial report. It has a dozen feedlots in the U.S. and Canada with capacity for almost one million head. JBS USA also processes 90,000 hogs daily, and 6.6 million birds a day through its 25 Pilgrim’s Pride processing facilities.

A food safety bribery scheme in Brazil resulted in seven executives of JBS SA, including Chairman Joesley Batista, admitting to making illegal payments to Brazil’s three most recent presidents, including incumbent Michel Temer. In 2017 the seven executives negotiated a plea bargain with prosecutors and agreed to pay a fine of $225 million reals — $67.93 million in U.S. dollars.

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