The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a recall of diced beef products that have been processed by a North Carolina distributor. The beef in question was produced on December 9th and is thought to have been shipped for distribution to schools in South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington as part of the National School Lunch Program.

The distributor was experiencing problems with a conveyor belt and pieces of this belt may have then become embedded in the meat products and thus making these meat products defective. After the problem was discovered, there were efforts made by the processing company to detain the defective meat but the meat was nevertheless mistakenly shipped to the various destinations for which it was originally intended.

Though no injuries or illnesses have as of yet been reported due to the mistaken shipment, the fact that such defective food products were shipped to so many location should be a cause for concern. All safety precautions and procedures must be implemented when it comes to the foods which all of us consume. Ultimately, every provider along the shipment chain should be held accountable for the safety of our food to prevent such a happening from occurring again.

Recalls are often conducted by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), a division of the USDA. Though such recalls are put in place to minimize the risk of injury or illness as much as is feasible, it is impossible to completely eliminate the risk of injury or illness once the food product has been introduced to the marketplace. Product liability suits are then put in place to help out those that have been injured.

Source: USDA News Release, "North Carolina Firm Recalls Diced Beef Products That May Contain Foreign Materials," Jan. 14, 2012