Meat recall includes products for Applebee’s

The Business Journal reports that Illinois meat processor Quantum Foods is voluntarily recalling 406,000 pounds of frozen beef products, including some packaged for use by Applebee’s International Inc. restaurants, after tests revealed the products may be tainted by E. coli bacteria.
Frank Ybarra, spokesman for the Overland park-based restaurant chain (Nasdaq: APPB), said the company’s best initial estimate “is that only about 80,000 pounds of this involved Applebee’s.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service reported Monday that the products subject to recall were produced on June 23-24 and distributed nationwide to restaurants, military institutions and retail stores. Some products also were distributed through door-to-door sales.
Ybarra said it was not likely that Applebee’s still has any of the suspect meat because “this is the kind of inventory we would burn through pretty quickly.”
Each box bears the establishment code “EST. 213-D” inside the USDA seal of inspection.
The recall was initiated after epidemiological case studies conducted by public health officials concluded the recalled product may be linked to four E. coli illnesses in Colorado.
In a separate matter, Applebee’s said in early July that it would take a $2.3 million charge for the second quarter for meat that didn’t meet company standards.