Bettina Boxall/LA Times
One of the largest banh mi makers in the U.S., Lee’s Sandwiches, has recalled 213,000 pounds of meat products that were made without being inspected and had the unauthorized United States Department of Agriculture marks of inspection on them, according to a press release from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Lee’s Sandwiches has issued a massive recall on meat products that were improperly labeled. (Rick Madonik/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
The issue was discovered during a “surveillance review” by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. According to the USDA, the company used another facility’s mark of inspection. LQNN, the chain’s parent company, explains that while the company could supply the products in question to corporate-owned Lee’s Sandwiches stores, they were not permitted to supply franchise-owned stores without additional USDA approval. They also admit to mislabeling the products in their own press release.
While there haven’t been any reports of illnesses associated with eating the meat in question—which was sold between May 18, 2014, and May 18, 2015 – the USDA has classified this as a Class One recall, which means the health risk is considered high. The products were distributed to restaurants throughout California, Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas.
The biggest quantities of recalled meat products were pork pate chaud, chicken pate chaud, banh bao pork and egg steamed bun, sliced oil browned turkey”, and “banh bao trung cut pork and quail egg steamed bun”.
Consumers with questions can contact Lee’s Sandwich’s Chief Operating Officer Tom Quach at 714-333-8688.
To find out more about the recall, click here:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lees-sandwiches-recall-20150525-story.html
