Recall: 1 Dead, 17 Sick From E. Coli Contaminated Fort Morgan Meatpacker Beef

September 20, 2018

Photo: Fort Morgan Cargill Plant — In this January 2016 photo, dawn approaches over the meat processing plant owned and run by Cargill Meat Solutions, in Fort Morgan, a small town on the eastern plains of Colorado. Fort Morgan has about 1,200 Somali immigrants, themselves mostly refugees, many of whom work at Cargill.

Fort Morgan's Cargill Meat Solutions is recalling more than 66 tons of E. coli contaminated ground beef after one death and 17 illnesses.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service verified the E. coli illnesses and related death. The epidemiological investigation found the affected people all bought raw meat from Cargill supplied grocery stores.

The beef products were produced and packaged on June 21 and shipped to retailers nationwide — and include 3-, 10- and 20-pound packages of ground beef under the Our Certified, Excel, Sterling Silver, Certified and Fire River Farms brands with July 11 use or freeze by dates.

The products subject to recall are marked with establishment number “EST. 86R” inside the USDA mark of inspection.

Most people infected with E. coli develop diarrhea and vomiting. More severe infections can lead to kidney failure.

The name of the deceased person has not been released.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.