Rochester Meat Company E. coli Outbreak - Wisconsin, California
In late 2007 and early 2008, public health officials in Wisconsin and California began investigating what appeared to be an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with ground beef consumed at Tony Roma’s restaurants in their states. Further investigation indicated that the ground beef consumed by ill Californians and Wisconsinites was supplied to Tony Roma’s by Rochester Meat Company of Rochester, Minnesota.
On January 12, 2008, Rochester Meat Company recalled 188,000 pounds of ground beef products for potential E. coli contamination. The recall came after Wisconsin had identified five confirmed E. coli cases associated with the ground beef products, and California had identified one confirmed E. coli case associated with the contaminated ground beef.