We've Got Greens, Beans, Potatoes, Tomatoes, but no Beef

Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc. is not going to have a happy Thanksgiving. On November 16th of this year, Tyson recalled roughly 93,000 pounds of ground beef that had been potentially contaminated with a "mirror-like" material.

Before we dive into the contaminated meat, let's take a second to talk about Tyson. Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc. is part of Tyson Foods Inc., which is the second largest meat processor in the world. Yes, we are talking about the same Tyson you see in the freezer section in the grocery store for chicken nuggets. Interestingly enough, that same friendly neighborhood meat company's reach is far beyond just the United States, and it provides meat for countries around the globe. In fact, the Tyson parent company has even acquired companies in other countries to increase its reach and better its meat quality.

The tainted meat is not the first thing that has brought Tyson to the spotlight in recent years. In fact, at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, Tyson was in the public spotlight for not following COVID-19 guidelines resulting in multiple lawsuits being filed against the company for that behavior.

Circling back to the meat contamination - what is the material? That hasn't been disclosed, but based on the description it may be some sort of metal since there are some that are mirror-like. How did the contamination happen? Again, there is not a lot of information available on what the material is nor how it ended up in so much meat. The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Safety Inspection Service specified that the recall involved the Hill Country Fare and H-E-B Ground Chuck ground beef that was shipped to a variety of retail locations in the state of Texas.

Was the issue noticed and reported by the USDA? No. Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc. received customer complaints reporting the mystery "mirror-like" material in ground beef products purchased from retailers in Texas. Three different ground beef products labeled Hill Country Fare Ground Beef or H-E-B Ground Chuck Ground Beef have been confirmed to be impacted. Affected products have the establishment number "EST. 245E" on the seam of the meat. If you somehow managed to get some of this unlucky meat, instead of throwing it away, return it to the store you bought it from for a refund and the peace of mind that it won't be placed in a dump somewhere for some poor animal to consume meat that's been tainted with a mystery mirror-like material.

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