Well, it appears that 2014 is starting off pretty rough for beef.
Just when this meat recall epidemic could not get any worst, another company has asked distributors to take their products off of store shelves.
This time, however, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is targeting misbranded beef jerky snack products.
Utah’s Prime Snax Inc., located in Salt Lake City, voluntarily recalled 90,000 pounds of beef jerky. Various flavors include the Chipper Snax Brand, the Nature Snack Organic, and Arizona Jacks.
As stated on their website, “We love developing, producing and marketing meat snacks products.”
Although the company claims to have 100 years of management expertise, Tuesday’s recall stems from an allergen.
According to FSIS, beef jerky products marked with EST. 18951 “contained a known allergen, soy lecithin, that was not declared on the label.”
Soy lecithin is a chemical used in the cleaning process of the company’s meat products.
The ingredient became a concern when an inspector from FSIS ran across an issue during a label review.
Prime Snax’s CEO Kevin Howard told the Associated Press that the unspecified ingredient was a “technical labeling mistake,” and the company did not know it was necessary to mention soy lecithin.
All jerky products produced before February 2 will go on recall. However, the USDA also labeled packages with dates earlier than Aug. 11, 2015 as contaminated.
Fortunately, no one has complained about the product. Federal inspectors are unaware of the health risks involved but are certain that they are minor.
The latest recall comes at a time when California’s Rancho Feeding Corporation had 8.7 million pounds of beef returned to their processing center. The recall was due to improper animal inspections.
Prime Snax’s recall will affect the following beef jerky brands: Arizona Jacks, Desert Star, Southwest Trail, Terrell, and Kettle Creek.
Review the detailed list via the USDA website.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
