FDA Warns of E. Coli Contamination in Ground Beef in HelloFresh Meal Kits

Ground beef in select HelloFresh meal kits that were shipped to customers over the summer might have been exposed to E. coli, according to a new public health alert.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued the alert over the weekend over concerns that the beef "may be associated with Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 illness."

The products, which were shipped to customers between July 2-22, are no longer available for purchase, so a full recall was not issued.

The affected beef includes 10-oz. plastic vacuum-packed packages with the following codes on the side of the packaging: “EST#46841 L1 22 155” or “EST#46841 L5 22 155.” The packages, which contained 85% lean ground beef, also had the code “EST.46841” inside the USDA mark of inspection.

The potential exposure to E. coli O157:H7 was initially discovered as part of a larger E. coli outbreak investigation where ground beef is "the probable source of the reported illnesses," according to the FSIS.

In conjunction with state public health partners and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the FSIS discovered that multiple consumers who were affected by the E. coli outbreak had received HelloFresh meal kits with ground beef between July 2-21. Anyone who might have frozen the meat and not eaten it yet is encouraged to throw them away.

"Traceback of materials used to produce the ground beef is ongoing and FSIS continues to work with suppliers and public health partners on the investigation," the health alert reads.

Consumers with questions about the public health alert can email HelloFresh at hello@hellofresh.com or speak with a representative via live chat. For food safety questions, customers can use the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-674-6854 between 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday.

This latest ground beef recall comes after New Jersey-based company Lakeside Refrigerated Services recalled approximately 120,872 pounds of ground beef products in April after the FSIS found the potential presence of E. coli during routine testing.

In August, the CDC shed some light on a growing E. coli outbreak and confirmed that 84 cases had been identified across four states (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania). At the time, the agency was still seeking to discover what the food source of the outbreak was, but many people in three of the states reported eating romaine lettuce at Wendy’s restaurants before they got sick.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com