Beef Burger Recall Over Fears Thousands of Products are Contaminated

Federal food safety inspectors have warned consumers nationwide against eating ground beef burgers from an Illinois producer over reports that some have been found to contain "rubber-like" material.

Weinstein Wholesale Meats, a family-owned business since 1959 based in a Chicago suburb, has recalled around 2,122 pounds of their burger patties that may be contaminated with pieces of white neoprene, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced on Thursday.

It comes a month after a Minnesota-based catering firm was forced to recall frozen beef pastries from schools in the state following concerns that they contained wire-like metal, which can pose a number of health hazards if ingested.

Neoprene, a synthetic rubber, is used in a wide variety of products including civil engineering, electronics and personal protective equipment such as face masks. While it is not considered toxic, it is a polymerized form of chloroprene, which is hazardous, and which the Environmental Protection Agency says is a likely carcinogen.

The FSIS said on Thursday that the potentially contaminated beef patties had been shipped to an online distributor, which had then sold the product to customers around the country. It was "concerned that some product may be in consumers' refrigerators or freezers," and urged them not to eat the patties, and to either throw them away or return them to the place of purchase.

In a statement, the federal authority said the problem had come to light after the vendor received "multiple" complaints from customers of white, rubbery material in their patties while preparing them for cooking. A spokesperson for Weinstein Wholesale Meats and Pre, the distributor, said they had received five complaints, which they described as "a very small amount of product."

"Weinstein has completed an internal review related to this event at the Forest Park facility and corrective actions have been implemented," the spokesperson said. "We view this as an isolated incident. Our company is committed to producing high quality and safe food for our customers."

The FSIS said that there had been "no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products," but said anyone concerned about illness or injury should speak to a medical professional.

It described the specific batch of beef burgers being recalled by Weinstein Wholesale Meats as coming in vacuum-sealed packs, containing two 10.7 oz "Grass Fed & Finished Beef Burger Patties" comprising 85 percent lean meat and 15 percent fat. This would suggest that some 3,174 burgers in 1,587 packs are affected.

The FSIS added that the product's label would show a use/freeze-by date of April 11 this year—suggesting some may have already been disposed of or frozen—and would bear the U.S. Department of Agriculture establishment number 6987.

In March, the FSIS warned against the use of a batch of pre-made beef sambusas—a traditional Somalian triangular pastry, similar to a samosa—over concerns a batch containing metal wire had made its way into school freezers. A 2016 study had found that between 2002 and 2014, there were an estimated 1,698 visits to emergency rooms nationwide due to injuries related to wire bristles in food.

The director of operations of the company, Hoyo SBC, based in Bloomington, Minnesota, told Newsweek at the time that it had identified the source of contamination and removed it from the production process, adding that it was "saddened" that the incident had occurred.

Update 04/21/23, 11:17 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from a Weinstein Wholesale Meats spokesperson.

Update 04/23/23, 3:40 a.m. ET: This article was updated to clarify the Weinstein Wholesale Meats spokesperson was also commenting on behalf of Pre.