Tainted Beef Is Traced to Earlier Outbreak

An outbreak of illnesses in San Luis Obispo County last month has been traced to ground beef contaminated with the same strain of the E. coli bacteria that was linked 18 months ago to 500 illnesses and four deaths on the Pacific Coast.

Undercooked hamburgers sold at a fast-food restaurant chain caused most of the illnesses in the original outbreak. The latest victims bought the contaminated ground beef at three Vons supermarkets in the area.

U.S. Department of Agriculture investigators found that Vons Meat Service Center in El Monte supplied the meat to the three markets. The El Monte facility serves as a central distribution point for the chain’s 344 markets in California and Nevada.

The E. coli illnesses were confined to the San Luis Obispo area and no other incidents have been reported, according to Vons spokeswoman Julie Reynolds.

“Hamburgers reportedly eaten by three children at their homes came from Vons markets in Atascadero, Santa Maria and Los Osos. The three San Luis Obispo County children who became ill . . . have been treated at hospitals and released,” said Terry Medley, acting administrator for the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service in Washington.

People stricken with E. coli typically experience nausea and abdominal pains and, in the advanced stage, bloody diarrhea, health officials said.

An investigation by the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the same Vons Meat Service Center also supplied some of the contaminated beef to Jack in the Box restaurants during the January, 1993, outbreak.

Last year, Vons closed the facility within the Vons Meat Service Center that produced the beef patties for Jack in the Box, and the chain no longer produces patties for other companies, Reynolds said.

The USDA has yet to determine the slaughterhouse, feedlot or ranch where the beef in the San Luis Obispo outbreak originated, Medley said.