Ground beef shipped out to customers in HelloFresh meal kits over the summer could be contaminated with E. coli, according to a public health alert issued on the weekend by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
issued on the weekend by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Although the agency's website still says that the food source causing the outbreak is unknown, earlier this month, the CDC said that awas a possible source. As a precautionary measure, the company immediately removed the lettuce at restaurants in four states. “This is a food-borne or water-borne pathogen, so you can get it from water that's contaminated, or you can get it from food, either meat that has not been cooked to a proper temperature, or it's pretty common with things like lettuce and spinach — things that we don't cook all the time and so the bacteria isn't killed,” Troisi said.
The reason why any outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 is relevant, Troisi said, is because this strain “can lead to a condition called hemolytic uremic syndrome , which can kill.”