A Texas meat processor is recalling 40,000 pounds of tainted ground beef destined for a half-dozen Georgia school districts.
The affected school districts are outside metro Atlanta, and most of the meat was caught before leaving two Georgia distribution centers, a company official said Saturday.
Lab results on Sept. 22 confirmed the presence of E. coli bacteria in the Palo Duro Meat frozen ground beef, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Amarillo-based company said the meat was produced Sept. 9 and shipped to warehouses in Douglasville and Cleveland for distribution to six school districts under the National School Lunch Program.
The districts were in Green, Morgan, Lumpkin, Union, Social Circle City and Towns counties, according to Palo Duro Meat Vice President Trevor Caviness.
The USDA said no illnesses have been reported so far. E. Coli can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and in the most severe cases, kidney failure.
“The good news is that we caught this before it got out to any consumers and it's on hold at these warehouses,” Caviness said. The beef may have been inadvertently shipped after a tracking error, he said.
Palo Duro Meat has been providing ground beef to Georgia districts under the school lunch program for 12 years.
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