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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Food / News Fearful Portland Beefeaters!

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 12:28 PM

No, not these guys outside the Heathman - you guys in the rest of Portland who have a hankering for hamburgers.

This morning's big Portland headline in the national news is the discovery of E. Coli in Cascade Natural Beef and SP Provisions brand beef. The company is recalling from hotels, restaurants and grocery stores "39,973 pounds of suspect beef" (which is, by the way, how I like to describe muscular firefighter-turned-commissioner Randy Leonard).

When I called SP Provisions for the details of how their burgers got infected with a virus most commonly spread by fecal contamination, I was told that "all the higher ups are in meetings" and too busy to talk to press. They promised to email all the details immediately... that was 29 minutes ago. Thanks for instilling me with the utmost confidence in your operation, guys.

In the meantime, delicious vegan Italian joint Portobella quickly confirms it's "pretty wide open" for reservations tonight.

1:20pm: Here's the update from SP Provisions — if no beef left the plant, like they say, then you're probably safe to keep munching.

As part of SP Provisions and the USDA routine testing on May 29, 2009, we tested a 60-pound sample of previously ground beef that we received from a local distributer. The sample tested positive for E. coli O157:H7.

Although we are confident no contaminated product left our plant, as a precaution only, we are recalling the ground beef within the expanded date range. The ground beef identified under this recall was sent to hotels, restaurants and institutions. The product was not sold to retail grocery chains in Portland.

 

Comments (11) RSS

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1
WTF? smirk, that company is going what is probably the biggest recall of product in their history. They're in the process of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars of product and sales.

And you're all self-righteous and pissy because the management is in meetings doing spin-control and can't be bothered to respond to a novice reporter from a snarky and useless alt-weekly? That they can't get the email shot off to you inside of 29 minutes? They're not the fucking Dominoes of quote delivery.

This is what's fucking wrong with reporters trying to be bloggers. They are two seperate skill sets and shouldn't be attempted to be conjoined unless you want your news coverage to end up looking like this: http://www.livingwithcerebralpalsy.com/blo…
Posted by Graham on June 3, 2009 at 12:56 PM · Report
2
You could have written this BEFORE I went to Burgerville! If I die, it's totally on you, Mirk! Blood on your hands!
Posted by Will Radik on June 3, 2009 at 1:16 PM · Report
3
I called Burgerville! They use Country Natural Beef. You're safe. ... ... safe-ish.
Posted by s.mirk on June 3, 2009 at 1:25 PM · Report
4
Good thing there has never been an E Coli outbreak in say, SPINACH! No one is safe Mirk, not even the vegans.
Posted by RT on June 3, 2009 at 1:41 PM · Report
5
Burgerville is awesome! Tastes great. Won't kill ya! New ad campaign?
Posted by Will Radik on June 3, 2009 at 1:45 PM · Report
6
These Ecoloni scares are about as justified as the swine flu scare. So you get a little fecal matter in your burger! Toughens you up!

What next, people afraid to have anal sex because they might get E COLI? I think not!
Posted by Demondog on June 3, 2009 at 1:58 PM · Report
7
Oh by the way. The Randy Leonard joke there is tops. Big ups, playa!
Posted by Will Radik on June 3, 2009 at 2:07 PM · Report
8
Man, I just wouldn't ever buy commercial ground beef from anyone. Grind your own or buy it someplace that has done so that day (which should certainly include plenty of supermarkets).
Posted by JasonC on June 3, 2009 at 2:11 PM · Report
9
Sarah, E. Coli isn't a virus, it's a bacterium.
Posted by Smiley on June 3, 2009 at 2:23 PM · Report
10
In other recent news... Some peanuts, pistachios, white peppers, spinach, cantaloupes, bean and soy sprouts have been recalled due to salmonella, e. coli and listeria contamination.

So, even the crazy people who prefer to only eat rabbit food should be "fearful" too!
Posted by llllllll on June 3, 2009 at 2:46 PM · Report
11
They should be fearful, sure, but the spinach didn't get e coli by itself - an animal put it there.
Posted by JasonC on June 3, 2009 at 4:41 PM · Report

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