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Hang on before chowing down.
Over the weekend, the US Department of Agriculture announced a massive recall of over 1.5 million ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products from the Chelsea, Massachusetts establishment Kayem Foods Inc., due to unsafe storage concerns at one of the company’s warehouses.
The affected food products, which were shipped to retail and food service locations across the country and in Hong Kong, include dozens of deli hams and ham steaks, beef, bacon, hotdogs, chicken meatballs, bacon, turkey breasts, al fresco sausages, kielbasa, polish loaf, extra lean corned beef, liverwurst and more.
The recall affects a whopping 1,584,361 pounds of RTE meat and poultry products.
The problem with the meats, which were produced between approximately March 31 and October 7 of this year (according to the USDA) and were stored and shipped between June 7 and October 14 (according to Kayem Foods), was discovered when a customer complained to the firm about their products being delivered warm on October 1.
Customers can check if their particular meat products were affected by noting the product labels, list of products and UPC code numbers, and establishment numbers (EST. M/P 7839,” “EST. P 20935A,” and “EST. M 9520” inside the USDA mark of inspection).
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), a subset of the US Department of Agriculture, has not received any reports of food-related illnesses due to the consumption of these meats, but the organization is still urging customers who purchased the possibly spoiled food not to eat it.
Instead, the meats should be thrown out or returned to the place of purchase.
Kayem Foods, which was established over a hundred years ago in 1909 and is a fourth-generation, family-owned company, also shared that customers should reach out to the company’s customer service team at 800-426-6100 or info@kayem.com, should they have additional concerns.
Kayem Foods President and CEO Matt Monkiewicz expressed an apology to the brand’s customers.
“Our business depends on providing consumers with safe food of the highest quality,” said Monkiewicz in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are undertaking this voluntary recall.”
“We take food safety very seriously and apologize to our valued consumers,” he continued. “Our management team takes full responsibility. We have learned from and corrected the issue and will not allow this to happen again.”
In the statement, Kayem Foods shared that they are also directly contacting all of its wholesale and retail customers with instructions on how to identify and dispose of the recalled products.