After fears of E. coli contamination spurred beef recalls at Nebraska Beef Ltd. and Whole Foods Market, the company with the name on the packages sold at Whole Foods is distancing itself from the situation.
Coleman Natural Beef LLC spokeswoman Katie Coakley said that although the beef bore the Coleman brand, it was not Coleman beef.
Loveland-based Meyer Natural Angus bought Coleman, which is based in Golden, on June 1, and a licensing agreement allows Meyer to brand some of its meat as Coleman to existing customers for a year, Coakley said.
Calls to Meyer were not returned.
Whole Foods on Friday announced a voluntary recall of 50,000 pounds of Coleman fresh ground beef sold between June 2 and Aug. 6.
Whole Foods said in a statement that no Coleman Natural Beef fresh ground beef is now available in any of its stores.
A federal investigation found possible E. coli contamination in beef processed at Nebraska Beef’s plant in Omaha, sparking the plant’s Friday’s recall of 1.2 million pounds of the company’s primal and subprimal cuts and boxed beef made June 17, June 24 and July 8.
Some of the Coleman-branded beef is processed at Nebraska Beef. The brand was pulled from Whole Foods because parent company Meyer had not gotten the Nebraska Beef facility approved, Whole Foods spokeswoman Kate Lowery said.
Boyd Hoback, president and chief executive of Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custards, said the burger chain uses Coleman beef that is processed at plants other than Nebraska Beef and that the recall does not affect many Coleman beef buyers like him.
“I don’t think it helps the Coleman brand — I don’t think they want to be associated with a recall — but it doesn’t diminish our confidence in them,” Hoback said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are more than 70,000 cases each year of E. coli infection, some strains of which can cause dehydration, diarrhea and sometimes kidney failure.
Alex McCarthy: 303-954-1381 or amccarthy@denverpost.com
