Food safety concerns make headlines today and remind us again to be cautious:

A meat company yesterday issued a nationwide recall for 21.7 million pounds of ground beef products after reports of up to 25 cases of illness caused by suspected E. coli bacteria in eight states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, federal officials reported.

The recall, by the Topps Meat Company of Elizabeth, N.J., covers a wide range of frozen hamburger patties and other products manufactured over the last year and bearing a “sell by” date or “best used by” date between last Tuesday and Sept. 25, 2008, along with the United States Department of Agriculture designation EST 9748.

The voluntary recall, an expanded version of one issued last Tuesday for nearly 332,000 pounds of Topps beef, was the first in the 67-year history of Topps, one of the nation’s largest meat processing concerns. It was also one of the larger meat recalls of recent years, the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety Inspection Service said.

Amanda Eamich, a spokeswoman for the service, said the expanded recall was based on an additional sample of meat contaminated with the E. coli O157:H7 strain, as reported by the New York State Health Department; by findings of an inspection service safety assessment; and by new reports of illnesses under inquiry in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Recalled products are from the Butcher’s Best, Kohler Foods, Topps and Sand Castle Fine Meat brands. A complete product list is on the Topps Meat website.

For more information regarding E. coli and other food safety concerns, Fat Loss Victory recommends the extensive resources of The U.S. FDA Center for Health Safety and Applied Nutrition website.

Once again, there has been an outbreak of the e coli bacteria in food crops. This time it’s Dole’s lettuce:

A division of Dole Food Co said on Monday it was recalling some bagged salads sold in the United States and Canada because a sample at a Canadian grocery store was found to contain E. coli.

Dole Fresh Vegetables said it has not received any reports that anyone has become sick from eating the products. The recall covers “Dole Hearts Delight” salads sold with a “best if used by” date of Sept. 19.

We need to be mindful of potential contamination when dealing with any kind of raw foods, animal or plant. The U.S. FDA Center for Health Safety and Applied Nutrition has an excellent website on food safety, which I highly recommend.