At least five restaurant chains are now included in a list of those affected by the late December recall of 124 tons of beef, including Darden Restaurants Inc.’s Olive Garden and Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar.
Officials from Orlando-based Darden said Tuesday they were notified on Christmas Eve about the E. coli-related recall of marinated beef medallions used in Olive Garden units in the Texas region of the 695-unit chain.
Other restaurants affected by the recall are Moe’s Southwest Grill, Carino’s Italian and KRM Inc., operator of 15 54th Street Grill & Bar locations. Both Moe's and Carino's said they have pulled the meat in question and have received no reports of illnesses.
Mark Jaronski, Darden's director of media and communications, said the medallions in question were immediately pulled from the Olive Garden restaurants after receiving notice of the recall from its supplier, National Steak and Poultry. The medallions were tested and found to be free of E. coli. He said the supplier told Darden that the medallions were included in the recall — the first in the supplier’s 30-year history — as a precautionary move because they were processed in the same plant and during the same timeframe as other products implicated in the outbreak.
The Owasso, Okla.-based National Steak and Poultry said in a statement to Nation's Restaurant News that it had contacted all of its customers by Dec. 24.
“Customers have been asked that all products that were part of the December 24th recall be removed from commerce immediately,” the statement said. “Since then we have been working to have the product returned to National Steak and Poultry as part of the precautionary measures to protect consumers.
“National Steak and Poultry follows a rigorous food safety protocol, and we are in the process of reviewing our procedures and will make any necessary upgrades as part of our commitment to continuous improvement,” the statement continued.
Nancy Mays, a spokeswoman for Applebee’s Services Inc., parent to the 2,002-unit Applebee’s chain and a division of Glendale, Calif.-based DineEquity Inc., said Wednesday: “As a customer of NSP we took immediate action when learning of this recall. Any product that had potential to be affected was removed from restaurants.”
Mays added, “We have not been notified of any product destined for our restaurants to have tested positive.”
Unclear at press time was just how many restaurants and chains may have received recalled products beyond the five already associated with the recall, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service and the supplier have not released a list of such recipients.
Afull list of the products being voluntarily recalled by National Steak and Poultry can be found here. Companies or consumers with questions about the recall may contact National Steak and Poultry at (866) 439-7348.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that there have been 21 confirmed cases of E. coli illness in 16 states, including nine that required hospitalization, that are associated with the recalled beef. Officials indicated that the outbreak may have already spiked.
“We continue to monitor for additional cases but most of the illnesses occurred in November, with very few in December,” said Arleen Purcell-Pharr, a public affairs specialist for Atlanta-based CDC.
The onset dates of the E. coli O157:H7 illness cases reported so far have ranged from Oct. 3 to Dec. 14, Porcell-Pharrr said. She added that no fatalities have been associated with the outbreak.
According to the CDC, the states in which E. coli cases have been confirmed are California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Washington.
In a statement about the recall, National Steak and Poultry officials said: “We take the safety and wholesomeness of our products very seriously ... Given our long history of focusing on product safety and our standards of excellence, we will error on the side of being cautious with this recall.”
Contact Alan Liddle at [email protected].