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Local eateries may have received recalled meat
| Tuesday, Feb 19 2008 10:55 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Feb 20 2008 8:19 AM
Local In-N-Out Burger and Jack in the Box restaurants could have received beef later recalled by Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., restaurant officials said Tuesday.
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Bakersfield Jack in the Box restaurants, which received jumbo hamburger patties from a supplier that used raw product from Hallmark/Westland, were included in the company's recall, according to the company's official statement and Kathleen Anthony, media relations manager for Jack in the Box.
Hallmark/Westland supplied a small amount of raw product to the supplier before Jack in the Box notified the supplier at the end of January to stop accepting the product, the statement said.
Hallmark/Westland was also a small supplier to In-N-Out, said spokesman Robert Emmers.
And while "probably some of the patties went to Bakersfield ... there's no way that anything could have been wrong with those," Emmers said due to what he calls the chain's stringent inspection process.
In a statement, In-N-Out President Mark Taylor said the company ended its relationship with the meat-packing company Jan. 30 and there is no meat from Hallmark/Westland currently being served.
The company never bought processed patties or ground beef, only whole chucks.
Inspectors for the restaurant company show up at suppliers unannounced, Emmers said. The beef is also inspected when it gets to In-N-Out's plant, and then In-N-Out butchers finish processing the meat.
"These guys tell me they could tell by looking at a chuck whether it came from a downer cow or sick cow," Emmers said. "It's much higher quality than this processed stuff that went to the schools."
Since In-N-Out doesn't freeze its beef, any remaining beef from Hallmark/Westland was probably eaten within two days of In-N-Out ending its relationship with the company, Emmers said.
Just to be safe, the local Costco took some sirloin burgers, beef chub and frozen meatballs off the shelf Sunday, said Robert Tayan, assistant warehouse manager.
The store doesn't yet know if any of the beef originally came from Hallmark/Westland, Tayan said. He felt confident the beef currently on the shelves is up to standards.