Whole Foods eats crow
August 13, 2008
Here’s a story for you. Whole Foods has just recalled ground beef contaminated with the toxic form of E. coli, 0157:H7. The company had had to go into full damage control. It needs to. The beef came from Coleman Natural, which used to take pride in the quality of its meat and its safety procedures. But Coleman was bought by Meyer Natural Angus last spring, and Meyer uses Nebraska Beef for processing. Nebraska Beef has a history of problems with E. coli 0157:H7. Whole Foods didn’t check. This is a fine mess, one that I attribute to the usual results of pressures on corporations to please their stockholders, never mind public health, but I am curious about one thing: What is Meyer Natural? Is it owned by another, larger company? If so, which?
An interesting find:
“Meyer Pharmaceuticals LLC engages in discovery research, provides pharmaceutical research services under the service mark Meyer Pharmaceuticals®, and develops pharmaceutical compositions for human clinical therapy. It was established in 1996 and has a broad portfolio of intellectual property covering therapeutics for both inflammatory disease and cancer. It is privately held and funded by Robert E. Meyer. The corporate group owned by Mr. Meyer has a diversified range of interests, including pharmaceuticals, investment banking, commercial real estate, and the Meyer Natural Angus® livestock business.”
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/89398.php
Comment by Andy Bellatti — August 13, 2008 @ 1:19 pm
Kind of reminds me of this chuckle-inducing Whole Foods photo:
http://flickr.com/photos/smailtronic/449976409/
Comment by Jonathan Bloom — August 13, 2008 @ 4:03 pm
In case anyone didn’t know, E coli is science jargon for cow poop in your food.
Comment by sid — August 13, 2008 @ 4:18 pm
we don’t have a Whole Foods near where I live but one of our local up-market grocery stores just had a recall of ground beef…Dorothy Lane Market in Dayton, OH. Here is a snippet from the news article:
“The withdrawal is related to the same processing facility in Nebraska implicated by a national recall issued by the Kroger Company in recent weeks, DLM said.
“Unfortunately, our longtime supplier, Coleman Natural Meats, had used this processing plant on a temporary basis, and apparently some of our beef was affected,” DLM said.”
temporary? hope so
Comment by meiren — August 13, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
Interesting. I didn’t know Whole Foods shoppers even ate ground beef.
Comment by blah — August 13, 2008 @ 7:29 pm
My mother bought some Coleman ground beef at Costco in June when the regular ground beef was sold out. I don’t know if they are also involved by the recall. There is nothing on Costco’s website.
Comment by Renata — August 13, 2008 @ 8:57 pm
With such a history of poor sanitation pratices and contaminated meats coming from this plant, why is it allowed to remain open and process anybody’s meat???
Comment by Sheila — August 14, 2008 @ 12:36 pm
That’s too bad. I generally like Whole Foods’ meat section.
Comment by darya — August 14, 2008 @ 7:28 pm
[…] case you missed it Earlier this week, Whole Foods ate some crow and issued a recall on ground beef. Yesterday, the USDA expanded the recall by another 160,000 […]
Pingback by The News Feed — August 15, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
@darya: Well, the good news is that it’s probably fine now! My sister bought ground beef there the other day, reasoning that they’re probably being extra-careful.
Comment by Brigid — August 15, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
Might be time for WFM to consider dropping beef sales. They could concentrate on reinforcing organic standards that still exist. This blog has been helpful in pointing links to problems in the food industry as a whole!!
Comment by Jane — August 15, 2008 @ 1:09 pm
Wow! Just to clear up a few things…This recall was voluntary. A butcher in the midwest bought chuck beef from Coleman, directly. He ground that meat into burgers and that’s where the e coli was found. Meyer Natural has never, ever used Nebraska Beef for processing. They use Greater Omaha Packing for processing which uses N=60 testing on their beef.
Comment by jada — August 21, 2008 @ 10:33 am