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Bad Beef Recalled

Aired July 19, 2002 - 14:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's being called the second largest beef recall in history, 18 million pounds of potentially contaminated ground beef are being recalled. The government is urging consumers to check their freezers for this bad beef.

Our medical correspondent Rea Blakey is live from New York with the latest from there. Rea, how do we check and see if we do have this beef?

REA BLAKEY, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, in fact I have in my hand the recall release, which is nine pages. And in it, it says the health risk is high, and it also recommends that people look for a code on their ground beef that says "Est. 969," and that code would be found inside the USDA Seal of Inspection.

To be on the safe side, the USDA says that you probably should, if you suspect that you may have this tainted beef, you probably should either return it to the point of purchase or simply throw it away, don't use it.

Sixteen cases have been confirmed in Colorado. Another six cases are suspected, and this would be of E. coli bacteria infection. Those six other cases are suspected in five other states.

And what we know at this point is that the plant in Greeley, Colorado actually has 30 USDA food inspectors on site at all times. The idea being that they just want to keep an eye on what's going on at that plant, because it's one of the largest processors of food products in the country.

On April 12, we're told, the plant inspectors started seeing the first random positives for E. coli at that plant. And not until June 19, we're told by Dr. Elsa Murano, who is with the USDA, that a customer of ConAgra tested their product, and that their product, which now obviously is outside the Greeley, Colorado plant, tested positive. That shifted things into gear.

Earlier today, there was a news conference with the USDA agriculture secretary. Her name, Ann Veneman -- let's take a look at what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANN VENEMAN, AGRICULTURAL SECRETARY: The U.S. Department of Agriculture immediately dispatched an additional team of food safety scientists and other experts to that facility to begin an in-depth investigation into this situation at hand. We have been working very closely with CDC and the Colorado Department of Health on this issue. In addition, ConAgra has been very cooperative throughout this review process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLAKEY: Again, we mentioned 16 confirmed cases in Colorado. We are told that two of those cases are among young children, the ages 2 and 4. You should know that the people at greatest risk for E. coli bacteria infection are children under the age of 5, the very elderly and people with compromised immune systems.

Just to give you an idea of some of the potential symptoms a person might see if, in fact, they were infected with E. coli would include: stomach cramps, often severe and some stomach tenderness as well; diarrhea that could be watery at first and then become very bloody; nausea and vomiting; generally no fever associated with this, or only a mild fever, but again, symptoms to look for.

One other reminder for you, the USDA warns us that the best way to try to prevent E. coli infection at any time from ground beef would be to make sure that the beef is well-cooked. And you can only do that if you have an accurate thermometer, digital hopefully, that will give you a reading of 160 internal degrees for your ground beef for your hamburger. You can't go by color. You have to test the temperature.

Again, this recall of 18 million pounds of ground beef from ConAgra, which is the second largest recall that we know of in history -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Rea Blakey, thank you.

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