Kroger expands ground beef recall to VA

WSLS News Staff
Published: July 2, 2008

Kroger expands a ground beef recall, to include stores in Virginia.

According to a news release from the company, the USDA linked E. coli cases in Michigan and Ohio to Nebraska Beef.  That company supplies ground beef to Kroger.

The expanded recall now includes ground beef sold in styrofoam tray packages wrapped in clear cellophane, or purchased from the store’s meat department—as well as some Private Selection ground beef.

The sell by dates on the ground beef in styrofoam tray packages for Virginia stores range from May 19th through June 6th.  A Kroger spokeswoman says none of the affected ground beef has been traced to Virginia.  As a precaution, all ground beef from the recall dates has already been taken out of Kroger stores, and all current ground beef in Virginia Kroger stores is not from Nebraska Beef.

In addition, Kroger is recalling Private Selection Natural ground beef sold in 16 ounce packages that were sold in the “self-service meat case” of stores.  Their sell by dates range from July 11th through July 21st.  These packages are also styrofoam containers, wrapped with cellophane.  A Kroger spokeswoman says a “self-service meat case” is the refrigerated case often in the middle of aisles, or on the wall in the meat department area.

Kroger says customers can return the recalled ground beef to a store for a full refund or replacement.

Kroger says it directed workers at its stores to remove the recalled ground beef, as well as clean and sanitize any equipment used to prepare the ground beef.