Warning issued on some meat products

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2003 | 11:31 a.m.

The owner of a meat packing company in Washington state said today that 200 pounds of beef products that may be contaminated with listeria, an organism that causes an uncommon but potentially fatal disease, has been recovered in Las Vegas.

Kurt Stalvig, general manager of Kona Gold in Bellevue, Wash., said one Las Vegas distributor had received the beef products and would ship them back to Washington.

"I've already contacted him," Stalvig said today.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service sent out a notice late Wednesday saying that the company had voluntarily recalled the beef after laboratory tests confirmed listeria in the meat.

"It's fairly routine to issue a recall and local health authorities are not necessarily notified," FSIS spokeswoman April Demert of Washington, D.C.

Healthy people rarely develop listeriosis, Demert said.

However, listeriosis can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea.

Listeriosis can sometimes be fatal in those with weak immune systems, including infants, the elderly, or persons with chronic diseases, HIV infections or those on chemotherapy, Demert said.

The Clark County Health District had not been notified of the recall as of this morning.

If the meat had reached store shelves, environmental health inspectors would have visited each store, Health District spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said.

However, Sizemore suggested that consumers check their kitchens for any recalled product.

The products being recalled are Kona Gold, Soft and Delicious, Teriayaki Beef, Kippered Beef Steak Nuggets in 7-ounce packages.

The packages bear a lot code of 121.

The Las Vegas Jerkys, Etc., Kippered Beef Nuggets in 7-ounce packages include a lot code of 122.

The products were produced on Sept. 4. Each package has an establishment number of 17175 inside the USDA inspection mark.