The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) has issued a public health alert due to an undetermined amount of ground beef product prepared under custom exemption that may be contaminated with NON-O157 Shiga toxin-pruducing E. coli (STEC). That product was prepared at a Type II Establishment (custom exempt), David B's Custom Meats, located in Carlinville IL, in Macoupin County at the beginning of 2020 to current. Custom exempt meat products are not inspected and cannot be offered for sale; because of this, a recall of the affected product was not requested.

The problem was discovered when a resident of Macoupin County notified local public health officials about sickness after consuming ground beef. The sample collected from the remaining product tested positive for presence of NON-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli.

The State Journal-Register reports that David B’s owner, David Burcham, took to Facebook to defend his company’s products.

“Our inspector has instructed us to continue operation as normal and to not worry about the situation at hand,” Burcham noted. “Nothing has been proven and we do not know the source of the accusation (and have been denied that information) to try to fix the possible situation.”

Source: Illinois Department of Agriculture, State Journal-Register