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Whole Foods Extends Beef Recall

Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Utah included

August 13, 2008

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Whole Foods Market says it is now extending its voluntary ground beef recall to include Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Utah. The voluntary recall in select states was issued for fresh ground beef sold between June 2 and August 6, 2008 because of a concern that it may be contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria.

The beef in question came from Coleman Natural Beef, now owned and operated by Meyer Beef, which used Nebraska Beef for processing.

On the evening of August 8, 2008, Nebraska Beef issued a USDA Class 1 recall of 1.2 million pounds of beef because of possible E. coli 0157:H7 contamination of which only very small percentage was destined for select Whole Foods Market stores. The majority of this recalled product went to other retailers.

Whole Foods said it voluntarily recalled fresh ground beef in select stores that received beef from the facility in question, after learning that state health departments in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania linked illnesses to nine Whole Foods Market shoppers.

Whole Foods Market's Rocky Mountain Region, which is comprised of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Kansas, was not initially identified in the voluntary recall. Historically, the region has not sourced meat from the facility in question for ground beef. Upon further investigation, however, the region discovered it had received a small shipment in late June. At the time of discovery, the company said all remaining product in the stores was pulled immediately.

Also this week the upscale grocery chain announced a new set of internal procedures, designed to detect changes in points of origin for meat. The company says it had no procedure in place that would have alerted it to the fact that one of its suppliers, Coleman Natural Foods, was now using a suspect meat processing plant.

"We invite shoppers to continue to buy beef at our meat counters with confidence because currently there is absolutely no beef associated with this recall in our stores," the company said in a statement.

States now in the voluntary recall for ground beef purchased between June 2 through August 6, 2008 include: Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin.

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