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Seven people in Massachusetts
have been sickened, presumably by the beef sold at Whole Foods Market, thus the
grocery chain recalled yesterday all ground beef sold between June 2 and August
6.
Massachusetts
seems to be at the center of the most recent outbreak of food poisoning, seven
out of the nine cases nationwide having been reported here. All of the nine
people who have fallen ill, counting two victims in Pennsylvania,
consumed meat apparently contaminated with the E. coli bacteria, which can
generate bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and in more severe cases, kidney
failure.
Following the salmonella outbreak and the tainted ground
beef at the Kroger grocery chain, it seems that this time the source of the
contaminated meat was most likely a Whole Foods supplier, Coleman Natural Beef,
whose meat is processed by Nebraska Beef Ltd., which was also implicated in the
Kroger contamination.
“At the time of the previous recall, Whole Foods Market received
assurances from Coleman Natural Beef that no product delivered to Whole Foods
Market was linked to the recall,” the Austin, Texas-based company said in a
statement, according to the Boston Globe. “Those assurances are now in
question,” the statement read.
All seven people in Massachusetts
who got sick between July 11 and July 29 went shopping at distinct Whole Foods
Markets. Six of the victims had consumed ground beef, and the seventh had eaten
a steak which he had cooked on the same grill as a hamburger bought at the same
store.
Furthermore, five of the victims have been hospitalized, but
are expected to recover. Officials did not divulge the victims’ identities,
specifying only that they were aged between 3 to 60 and lived in Essex,
Middlesex, and Suffolk counties.
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