Hopefully these were not part of the recall (Image: Seth Kaplan)

The product: Just about every other brand of store-bought burger this side of the 49th parallel (OK, not quite—the extensive list is below)

Establishment number: 761

Best before date: from January 1, 2012 to February 15, 2013

Production code: 11 JL 01 up to 12 FE 15

Lot code: five digits, with the last four being 1831 or greater

The details: What started out as a case of some contaminated beef appears to have become a case of, well, a heck of a lot more contaminated beef. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which has been sending out steady notices about various beef products over the past weeks, has learned that over 135 products may be contaminated with E. coli. Best Value 10 Beef Burgers? (Potentially) Contaminated. Country Morning Beef Burgers and Country Morning Gold Western BBQ Burgers? Yep. PC Thick and Juicy? Oh yeah. Most of these products have ended up in grocery stores, but some have been sent to restaurants, like Hero Certified Burgers and Licks, as well. Anyway, while it’s tough to keep track of the dozens of potentially affected products, the CFIA says they can all be identified by their establishment number, 761, which belongs to New Food Classics. The CFIA reports only one illness associated with the outbreak so far, but maybe you’d better jot that number down—this is the same strain of E. coli that was responsible for seven deaths in Walkerton, Ontario back in 2000. [CFIA]

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