Kayem Foods Inc. is recalling approximately 1,584,361 pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products after discovering they may have experienced temperature abuse during storage. The Chelsea, Massachusetts company's recall covers a wide swath of grocery staples, including bacon, hot dogs, sausage, turkey breasts, hams and other ready-to-eat items produced between March 31 and October 7 of this year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced the recall on October 17, two days before this report. According to Food Safety News, the recalled products were shipped to retail and foodservice locations nationwide in the United States as well as to Hong Kong, meaning the problem stretches well beyond Massachusetts and could affect shelves in multiple countries.
A Warehouse Cooler Went Wrong
The trouble traces back to a single customer complaint. Per the same outlet's reporting, the company discovered the issue after a retail customer reported warm product temperatures at the point of delivery on October 1. That complaint led investigators to a warehouse cooler that had experienced temperature deviations while storing various ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, the report notes.
Shoppers checking their freezers and fridges can identify the affected goods by looking inside the USDA mark of inspection, where the recalled products carry one of three establishment numbers: EST. M/P 7839, EST. P 20935A or EST. M 9520, according to the article. The recall touches multiple product lines rather than a single item, reflecting how broadly the warehouse issue spread across Kayem's supply chain.
Old Tyme Franks Among the Named Products
A list of more than 100 recalled products is available, and NewsNation reports that the recall includes Old Tyme Beef & Pork Frankfurters with natural casings in 12- and 48-ounce packages, along with Old Tyme Reds Frankfurters sold in five-pound packages. As the Las Vegas Review-Journal notes, there have been no confirmed reports of illness tied to consumption of the recalled products so far.
Despite the clean illness record, the sheer scale of the recall puts it among the larger meat recalls of the year, and it arrives amid a string of unrelated temperature-abuse recalls flagged by federal regulators. The Food Safety and Inspection Service separately recalled an undetermined amount of frozen ready-to-eat and not-ready-to-eat meat and poultry from Target Corporation due to temperature abuse during transport, and another recall involving Alef Sausage Inc. stemmed from products missing a refrigeration-handling statement on their labels — a different root cause than the warehouse cooler malfunction behind the Kayem recall.
What Consumers Should Do Next
Anyone who believes they got sick after eating one of the recalled products should contact a healthcare provider, per the Review-Journal's reporting. Kayem Foods customer service can be reached by phone at 800-426-6100 or by email at [email protected], with representatives available Monday through Friday from 4:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Consumers with broader food-safety questions can also reach the USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-674-6854 or by email at [email protected]. With the recall spanning six months and seven days of production and two countries' worth of retail and foodservice shipments, officials are urging anyone holding affected packages to check the establishment numbers before serving them.
