Aldi, Meijer and Target grocery stores in Illinois are included in a series of recalls of more than 130,000 pounds of ground beef due to the  potential presence of E. coli.

According to a statement by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service on Sept. 19, meat from a Cargill meatpacking plant in Colorado was recalled in different states, including Illinois.

Jiayi Huang, sophomore in LAS, buys beef regularly from Aldi, but didn’t find out about the recall until her roommate told her.

“I already ate the g****** meat,” she said. “So what was I going to do?”

One person died and 17 fell ill after eating the contaminated beef between July 5 and 25, but no illness has been reported in Illinois.

Students eating in the dining halls are not in danger of E. coli poisoning in connection with the meat recall, said Christopher Henning, senior assistant director of University Housing for Dining Services, in an email.

University Dining Services’ primary food distributor is US Foods, which orders meat from a number of sources.

“While we do use some Excel Corporation products that are part of Cargill, US Foods has not purchased any of the recalled product,” Henning said.

Consumer preferences for undercooked ground beef can also play a role in ground meat recalls due to contamination.

“There’s some consumer preferences for things like medium-well and medium-rare burgers,” said Matthew Stasiewicz, assistant professor of applied food safety at the University. “If there is a contamination, we have to manage that risk and recall the food, even if consumers were to cook that food thoroughly (and) would not become ill from eating the food.”

This isn’t the first time Cargill, the Minnesota-based agriculture and food giant, has had to issue recalls on its products. Less than a month ago, it issued another recall on ground beef that was not sold in Illinois. Meat from different packing plants has been subject to recall in 2010, 2011 and 2012, including 36 million pounds of ground turkey in 2011.

“There are times that recalls happen,” said Ben Peterson, manager of the University’s Meat Lab. “Maybe something didn’t get trimmed properly on the kill floor, something that might have slipped through the cracks.”

Large plants process a lot of meat, so it’s also possible that not all of the recalled meat was contaminated. Peterson said it might have just been one batch, but the whole point of this recall is to cover everything.

“There’s a lot of points in the food chain where a relatively small number of producers ship product to many different customers,” Stasiewicz said.

Symptoms of E. coli poisoning include bloody diarrhea, vomiting and fever, usually within three to four days after consumption. It is not usually serious, but may cause kidney failure in extreme cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The recalled ground beef was produced and packaged on June 21, 2018, and has “EST. 86R” stamped on it. The meat expired in July, but some people may have it stored in their freezers.

USDA recommends throwing out any contaminated meat or returning it to the store.

“One thing that is definitely true is that, like most foods, if you cook them thoroughly, you can dramatically reduce the risk of being ill,” Stasiewicz said.

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