WinCo Foods is recalling all Styrofoam-packaged fresh ground beef purchased between March 28 and April 9 at its stores in six states, including four Clark County locations.
The ground beef could be contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7, according to WinCo.
An independent test taken as part of a national survey turned up the E. coli bacteria in two samples of ground beef packaged at the WinCo store in Modesto, Calif. That caused public health officials to advise the Boise, Idaho-based supermarket chain to voluntarily recall the product at the California store.
A third sample was then taken and it showed the bacteria may have originated in the supply chain, said WinCo spokesman Michael Read.
By Sunday, WinCo issued a companywide recall affecting 63 WinCo Foods stores in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
“WinCo is taking responsibility by recalling the ground beef, just to be on the safe side,” Read said.
Read said no illnesses have been reported from the ground beef, which was supplied by separate companies WinCo has not named.
“We’re not going to identify them until we know which one it came from,” Read said.
He said WinCo is not the meat suppliers’ only customer.
The supermarket learned about the bacterial contamination from IEH Laboratory, which was hired to conduct a nationwide survey of ground beef.
The lab test was commissioned by Marler Clark, Attorneys at Law in Seattle, said Mansour Samadpour, president of Seattle-based IEH Laboratory.
The tests that implicated WinCo for tainted ground beef caused his company to call health officials, said Samadpour.
“At that point, it became a public health issue,” he said.
WinCo’s Read advised consumers who think they may have purchased the product to bring it back to the store for a full refund or destroy it.
WinCo operates four stores in Clark County at 2101 N.E. Andresen Road, 9700 N.E. Highway 99 and 905 N.E. 136th Ave. in Vancouver and at the corner of Northeast 117th Avenue and 119th Street in Brush Prairie.
“It mostly affected the Modesto stores. If people feel uncomfortable at all ,they can bring it back,” said Mark Groves, manager of the Brush Prairie store.
Groves said product refunds would be issued at all Clark County WinCo stores.
E. coli causes abdominal cramping and diarrheal illness, often with bloody stools. The bacteria is most threatening to young children and the elderly, who are at high risk of developing Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, which can lead to serious kidney damage and even death.
“If someone gets ill, they should contact their health care provider,” said Joe Graham, public health advisor for the Washington State Department of Health Food Safety Program.
About 76,000 people a year in the United States get sick from E. coli 0157:H7, according to Bill Marler, an attorney who has represented victims ever since the Jack in the Box E. coli contamination of 1993. The outbreak was responsible for the death of four children and for sickening hundreds of others in Seattle, California, Idaho and Nevada who ate undercooked and contaminated meat at the restaurant chain.
Marler Clark Attorneys, which commissioned the study to test meat supplies for a new strain of E. coli, said about 5,000 people are hospitalized annually with complications of E. coli 0157:H7, which claims the lives of somewhere between 75 and 150 people each year.
Editor’s note: Earlier versions of this story included a different number of meat samples tested. The symptoms of E. coli exposure also have been revised.
