If you’ve eaten at a restaurant or cafeteria in California, Idaho, or Oregon recently, you might want to pay attention. The USDA just dropped a Class 1 recall — that’s their highest danger level — on nearly 23,000 pounds of raw ground beef that tested positive for E. coli. And that’s not even the only meat recall Americans are dealing with right now. The past couple of months have been a rough stretch for meat safety in this country, with multiple recalls hitting different states for different reasons. Here’s what you need to know about each one.
The Big One: CS Beef Packers Recalls Over 11 Tons of Ground Beef
On February 11, 2026, CS Beef Packers, LLC — based in Kuna, Idaho — recalled approximately 22,912 pounds of raw ground beef because it may be contaminated with E. coli O145. That’s more than 11 tons of meat pulled off the market in a single recall. The products were all produced on January 14, 2026, and shipped to distributors in California, Idaho, and Oregon.
Here’s the important detail: these weren’t products sitting on grocery store shelves. They were sent to foodservice locations — think restaurants, cafeterias, institutional kitchens. So you wouldn’t have seen these packages in your local Safeway or Albertsons. But you may have eaten the beef without knowing it, served to you on a plate at a restaurant or school lunch line.
The USDA classified this as a Class 1 recall, which means they believe there’s a reasonable probability that eating this product could cause serious health consequences or death. That’s not the kind of language regulators throw around casually.
What Products Are Affected and How to Identify Them
The recall covers three specific products, all packaged in 10-pound cylindrical tubes called “chubs” and packed in cardboard cases:
First, there are cases containing eight 10-pound chubs of BEEF, COARSE GROUND, 73L with case code 18601. Then there are cases with four 10-pound chubs of FIRE RIVER FARMS CLASSIC BEEF FINE GROUND 73L, case code 19583. And finally, cases with four 10-pound chubs of FIRE RIVER FARMS CLASSIC BEEF FINE GROUND 81L, case code 19563.
All of the recalled items have a Use/Freeze By date of 02/04/26. The time stamps fall between 07:03 and 08:32, printed on stickers on the outside of the case and directly on the clear packaging. The establishment number to look for is EST. 630, which appears inside the USDA mark of inspection.
If you work at a restaurant, cafeteria, or any foodservice operation in those three states, check your freezers. The USDA specifically warned that some of this recalled beef may still be sitting in foodservice freezers right now.
What E. Coli O145 Actually Does to You
E. coli O145 isn’t the strain most people have heard of — that would be O157:H7, the one that makes the news most often. But O145 belongs to the same nasty family of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), and it can do the same kind of damage.
Symptoms usually show up 2 to 8 days after you eat contaminated food, with the average being 3 to 4 days. Most people develop diarrhea — often bloody — along with vomiting. For a lot of people, it’s a miserable week or so and then they recover. But for others, it can get much worse.
Older adults, kids under 5, and people with weakened immune systems face the highest risk of developing hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS. That’s a type of kidney failure. Warning signs include easy bruising, looking unusually pale, and producing less urine than normal. If you or someone you know has those symptoms after eating ground beef, get to a doctor immediately — don’t wait it out.
No illnesses have been confirmed in connection with this recall so far. But the contamination was real — it was found during FSIS testing at a downstream customer after the product had already left CS Beef Packers’ facility.
This Wasn’t Even the First Ground Beef Recall This Winter
Just a few weeks before the CS Beef Packers recall, another Idaho-based meat company had its own E. coli problem. On December 27, 2025, Mountain West Food Group out of Heyburn, Idaho, recalled 2,855 pounds of raw ground beef over possible E. coli O26 contamination.
This one was a different story in terms of where the beef ended up. Unlike the CS Beef Packers recall, these products were distributed for retail sales — meaning they could have ended up in grocery stores where regular consumers were buying them. The affected states were California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
The recalled product was a 16-ounce vacuum-sealed package labeled Forward Farms Grass-Fed Ground Beef, with a use or freeze by date of 01/13/26 and EST 2083 printed on the side of the packaging. It was produced on December 16, 2025.
FSIS caught this one through routine testing — their standard surveillance protocols flagged the contamination before any illnesses were reported. The USDA told consumers who had bought the beef to throw it away immediately or return it to the store.
Chicken Got Hit Too: Listeria Found in Grilled Chicken Fillets
Beef wasn’t the only protein making the recall list. On January 16, 2026, Suzanna’s Kitchen — a Norcross, Georgia company — recalled approximately 13,720 pounds of ready-to-eat grilled chicken breast fillets over possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination.
These chicken products were produced back on October 14, 2025, and shipped to distribution centers across seven states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Ohio. Like the CS Beef Packers situation, this chicken was headed for foodservice — restaurants, schools, cafeterias, convenience stores. Suzanna’s Kitchen supplies all kinds of food service operations across the country.
The recalled product is 10-pound cases containing two 5-pound bags of fully cooked grilled chicken breast fillets with rib meat. The lot code to watch for is 60104 P1382 287 5 J14, printed on the side of the case and on the package. The establishment number is P-1382.
A third-party lab caught the contamination. No illnesses have been reported, but Listeria is nothing to mess around with. It can cause serious illness, and pregnant women, older adults, and immunocompromised people are at the highest risk. The CDC says people in those higher-risk groups who develop flu-like symptoms within two months of eating contaminated food should get medical care.
One Virginia Store Recalled Beef With Plastic In It
And then there’s a different kind of contamination entirely. On February 7, 2026, Food Lion reported that ground beef prepared at a single store location — the 11130 Hull Street store in Midlothian, Virginia — was being recalled after small pieces of a black rubber plastic gasket were found in the meat. The gasket had come loose and gotten damaged during the grinding process.
Four varieties of in-store prepared ground beef were affected, all produced on February 6 and marked with a Sell By date of February 8. Now, that Sell By date has passed, but the USDA points out that a Sell By date is an inventory management tool for the store — not a safety date. People could easily still have this beef in their fridge or freezer.
No injuries or complaints were reported. Food Lion told customers they could return the meat for double their money back under the store’s guarantee. This one was small and localized, but it’s a good reminder that contamination doesn’t always mean bacteria — sometimes it’s physical objects in your food.
How to Protect Yourself Going Forward
The USDA keeps repeating the same advice, and it’s worth actually following: cook ground beef to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Not 145, not “until it looks done,” not “until the pink is gone.” Use a meat thermometer. It’s the only reliable way to know you’ve killed harmful bacteria.
Color is not a reliable indicator. Ground beef can look brown and still be undercooked, or it can look pink and actually be safe. The thermometer doesn’t lie.
If you work in foodservice in any of the affected states, check your inventory against the recall details. The USDA has been clear that some of this recalled product may still be in commercial freezers waiting to be used.
For the CS Beef Packers recall, you can contact Operations Manager Roger Cooper at 208-810-7510 ext 7531 or roger.cooper@csbeef.com. For the Mountain West Food Group recall, reach CEO Jeremy Anderson at 208-679-3765 or info@mountainwestfoodgroup.com. For the Suzanna’s Kitchen chicken recall, contact Dawn Duncan at dduncan@suzannaskitchen.com. And anyone with general food safety questions can call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-674-6854.
Four meat recalls in roughly two months, spanning more than a dozen states and covering beef and chicken alike. Whether it’s E. coli, Listeria, or chunks of rubber gasket, the message is the same: pay attention to what you’re eating, and take recall notices seriously — even if you think they don’t apply to you.
