Star Meat Delivery Inc. of Lucama, North Carolina, has recalled 167,639 pounds of raw beef, pork and goat products after the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said they were produced without federal inspection and carried labels with a false USDA mark of inspection. The company is disputing that description.

The products, made on various dates before 22 September, were shipped in bulk under the A&D Foods label to a distributor in Georgia for sale to shops and restaurants nationwide. They include goat cuts, sliced ribeye, beef short ribs, beef feet and pork products bearing "EST. 1363", a number USDA says has no federal grant of inspection. The agency says consumers should treat the products as misbranded and unsafe to eat, throw them away or return them, and notes that retail packs may carry the shop's own sticker instead of the number.

"We would also like to clarify that a fake USDA stamp was NOT used on these products," the company said, adding that "EST. 1363" was legitimately reserved for its processing centre as part of the USDA application process. It said it has worked for nearly 10 years mainly as a broker buying from USDA-inspected suppliers, and that the meat, from an inspected supplier, was cut and packed for the Georgia distributor while its approval to add processing was still under way.

USDA's public notice still describes the products as uninspected with a false mark, found during FSIS surveillance. Federal inspection covers processing as well as slaughter, AGDAILY notes. No illnesses have been confirmed.

Photo: Kalungi Nathan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Source: AGDAILY