On Christmas Eve, HEB grocery stores in San Antonio opened boxes of multi-vac packages of stew meat only to find them contaminated with pieces of plastic and metal. HEB pulled all the stew meat from its shelves in all stores and to be sure locked any sales out of its registers.
On Tuesday, the day after Christmas, about 4,702 pounds of stew meat was recalled from the Swift Beef-JBS USA plant in Cactus, TX because of the foreign matter contamination.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said the boneless stew items found with plastic and metal contamination by HEB on Dec. 24 were produced at Cactus on Dec. 13, 2017. Subject to the recall, according to FSIS, are:
Cases containing six 5-lb. bulk plastic bags containing fresh beef stew meat intended for HEB grocery store retailer re-package. The affected case code is 69404.
- Re-packaged various weight beef stew meat trays that also contain separately wrapped vegetables. The meat trays are marked with establishment 7231 on the side of the tray.
- Re-packaged various weight beef stew labeled as HEB brand: Beef Stew Meat Tenderized RP, Beef Stew Meat RP, Beef Stew Meat VP, Beef Stew Meat-CR VP, Beef Stew Meat Tenderized VP, Beef Stew Meat CP, and Beef Stew Kit.
The products subject to recall bear establishment number “EST. 3D” next to the USDA mark of inspection or Est. 7231 on the side of the tray. Only HEB retail stores in Texas received shipments of the product.
There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider.
FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify recalling firms notify their customers of the recall and that steps are taken to make certain that the product is no longer available to consumers. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on the FSIS website.
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