Aug 9, 2008 10:40 am US/Pacific
70 Sick In E. Coli Poisoning Linked To Azusa Plant
AZUSA, Calif.
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The meat has not been sold to retail shoppers, but was only wholesaled to institutional customers from distribution centers in Allentown, Pa., and Milwaukee, according to the USDA.
CBS 5 / MGN
As many as 70 people at a Boy Scout camp in Virginia have come down with food poisoning that may have come from a hamburger packing plant in Azusa, which is recalling 153,630 pounds of raw meat as a result.
E. coli bacteria are believed to have possibly contaminated the ground beef, and until the exact source is pinned down, the company is voluntarily recalling the ground meat, the Pasadena Star-News reported Saturday.
But Virginia health officials have identified the beef as tainted, and said at least 26 Boy Scouts from the Washington D.C. area have been hospitalized.
The meat has not been sold to retail shoppers, but was only wholesaled to institutional customers from distribution centers in Allentown, Pa., and Milwaukee, according to the USDA.
"We are recalling the product from distribution channels until we can determine whether illnesses in Virginia are connected to our operations or have some other original source or cause," said Jeff Grohs, a vice president at S & S Foods in Azusa, in an e-mail to the Pasadena Star-News.
Virginia health officials say dozens of Boy Scouts have come down with strain 0157:H7 of E. coli bacterial infections. One scout remains hospitalized, and 26 others have needed medical care, some in hospitals.
The scouts came down with the intestinal sickness at the Goshen Scout Reservation in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Roanoke Times reported. Virginia health department officials quoted by the newspaper said the ground beef from Azusa had the same strain of bacteria in it.
None of the affected ground beef is in California, the company said.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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