"Whole Foods recalls ground beef; 7 Mass. residents are ill after eating tainted meat" by Elizabeth Cooney and Neil Munshi, Globe Correspondents | August 9, 2008
Seven people in Massachusetts have fallen ill, most likely after eating beef sold at
The contamination is a major blow to a chain that promotes its food as superior to a typical grocery store's - and that is already struggling in the weak economy.
Massachusetts appears to be at the center of this latest outbreak of food poisoning, with seven of the nine cases nationwide. All nine, including two victims in Pennsylvania, ate meat apparently tainted with the E. coli bacteria, which can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and in severe cases, kidney failure.
This is the third time this summer that consumers have had to worry about what's in their refrigerators. First, it was fear of tomatoes tainted with salmonella - though the culprits turned out be jalapeño peppers. Then, worries about contaminated ground beef at the Kroger grocery chain.
This time, the source of the dangerous meat was probably a Whole Foods supplier, Coleman Natural Beef, whose meat is processed by Nebraska Beef Ltd., which was also involved in the Kroger contamination.
The outbreak comes at a bad time for the luxury grocer. Shoppers are moving back to standard grocery stores amid a slowing economy and quarterly profits are down, said Kevin Griffin, publisher of The Griffin Report of Food Marketing, a Duxbury-based trade newspaper. "I think it's going to be a major public relations challenge for them to overcome," he said.
Yesterday at the Whole Foods in Brighton, a casual survey of shopper suggests the damage might not be lasting. Jocelyn Sand, 43, of Brookline regularly buys ground beef from the market.
"It gives me a little pause," said Sand, "but I will probably buy it again - I think our [entire] food supply is [suspect] from time to time, but I still think Whole Foods is more on top of things than other places."--more--"
Excuse me!!!
I'll finish this post later; I gotta hit the head!
