Minnesota officials link five E. coli cases to ground sirloin

Wednesday, August 4th 2004, 12:41 pm

By: News On 6

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) _ Five cases of E. coli infection in Minnesota and Wisconsin have been linked to frozen ground sirloin patties sold by Sam's Club and manufactured at a Nebraska plant.

Health officials say four Minnesota residents and one Wisconsin resident became ill in July after eating sirloin patties purchased at Sam's Club stores in White Bear Lake, Eagan and Waukesha, Wisconsin.

The plant in Columbus is run by the Oklahoma City-based Carneco Holding Incorporated.

Officials are advising people NOT to eat frozen sirloin patties sold under the label ``Northern Plains'' with the lot number 17-304-CAR-2 with a ``Best Used By'' date of December 18th, 2004.

John Schaller, vice president of operations for Carneco, says Sam's Club notified his company about the illnesses on August Second.

The recall involves 497-thousand pounds of meat distributed to Sam's Club stores in ten states including: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Utah and Wisconsin.