NATION Meat recall involves 10 states including Ohio, Pennsylvania

The meat was distributed to Sam's Club stores.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- An Oklahoma-based company is recalling 497,000 pounds of meat processed at a Nebraska plant that has been the site of two other meat recalls since 1997.
The voluntary recall involves meat distributed to Sam's Club stores in 10 states including: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Utah and Wisconsin.
But a spokesman for Carneco Foods, which took over the plant in 2001, said it's just a coincidence that all three E. coli contaminations were traced to the same facility.
Health officials have said four Minnesota residents and one Wisconsin resident became ill in July after eating sirloin patties contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, processed at the Columbus, Neb., plant and purchased at Sam's Club stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Procedural changes
John Schaller, vice president of operations for Carneco Foods, said from his office in Oklahoma City on Wednesday that management and procedures at the plant were completely changed when his company took over operations. Carneco Foods is a joint venture between Oklahoma City-based Carneco Holding Inc. and Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson Foods Inc.
A few long-term employees of the facility were retained, but they have not been in positions that would play a role in the contamination of the products manufactured in the building, he said.
A 25 million-pound recall was ordered in 1997 after E. coli was found in ground beef processed at the plant when it was under the ownership of Hudson Foods Inc. In 2002, the plant, by then under Carneco, was the source of a recall of 130,981 pounds of frozen beef patties.
Doug Schultz, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health, said Wednesday no additional cases of E. coli infection had been tied to the Carneco Foods plant.
Officials said the implicated meat was being pulled from all Sam's Club stores. They also said some of the meat may have been sold by other retailers.
Schaller said Sam's Club notified Carneco Foods about the illnesses Monday.
The products
The company is recalling three products -- all processed June 21 -- that could be contaminated: ground sirloin patties, 80 percent lean beef patties and 90 percent lean fresh ground beef.
E. coli bacteria are naturally present in the intestinal tracts of warm-blooded animals, including humans. Most strains are harmless, but E. coli O157:H7 produces a toxin in people that can cause stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea and in some cases death.
Children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems are most at risk of becoming ill from the bacteria, said April Demert, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
E. coli contaminations are not uncommon, with most cases occurring during the summer months, Demert said.
Last year, the USDA had 21 recalls associated with ground beef. The Carneco recall marks the fourth such recall in 2004, she said.
Before a lot of raw materials enter the Carneco plant, the company tests a portion of the lot to try to screen out contaminated meat, Schaller said.
"You can't test every single piece," he said.
Meat vendors for Carneco are tracked in part based on the tests, he said.
Schaller said he did not have an estimate yet on what cost the recall would have on Carneco.
The USDA conducts its own tests on meat products around the nation, Demert said. Each company has its own protocols for screening out contaminated meat, with some smaller plants depending entirely on the USDA's tests to find any problems, she said.
The USDA is working with Carneco to identify the source of the contamination, Demert said.
"We'll continue to work with them to identify ways that they can improve the process and possibly keep this from happening in the future," she said.