Star Meat Delivery Inc. of Lucama, North Carolina, is recalling 167,639 pounds of raw pork, beef and goat products produced without federal inspection, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today. The products carried labels with a fake USDA mark of inspection.

The recall covers items produced on various dates prior to September 22. All of them bear the establishment number "EST. 1363," which FSIS says holds no federal grant of inspection (the license a plant needs to legally produce meat for interstate commerce). Any product carrying that number should be treated as misbranded and unsafe to eat.

What does the recall cover?

The recalled items shipped in vacuum-sealed packs inside cardboard boxes, distributed in bulk under the A&D Foods label. The list runs across three proteins:

• Goat: goat cut and burn-skin-on cut, in 10-pound boxes
• Beef: sliced ribeye, thin-sliced chuck, oxtail, short ribs, shanks, four-bone ribs, beef feet
• Pork: ground pork, chorizo, bone-in chops, feet, rib pieces, diced and sliced Boston butt, hocks, and a 30-pound menudo mix

There is a catch for operators. Individual consumer packages may not carry the false labeling, because retail stores may have applied their own pricing stickers over the original marks. A box in the walk-in could be recalled product even if the sticker looks legitimate.

Where did the product go?

The items shipped to A&D Foods, a distributor in Georgia, for further distribution to retail and restaurant locations nationwide. FSIS discovered the problem through routine surveillance activities, not through illness reports.

There have been no confirmed reports of illness or injury linked to consumption. FSIS nonetheless warns that food produced without inspection may contain undeclared allergens, harmful bacteria, or other contaminants.

What should restaurants and retailers do?

The agency's instructions are blunt. Retailers and restaurants should not sell or serve these products. Product should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase. FSIS is concerned some inventory may still sit in refrigerators and freezers at consumer, restaurant and retail levels.

For operators, the recall is a supplier-verification problem as much as a food-safety one. Product entered distribution with a falsified federal mark and cleared a distributor before regulators caught it. Anyone buying boxed raw proteins through secondary distribution should check the establishment number on hand now.

FSIS may expand the recall. The agency said it will update the product list and labels with additional items as more information becomes available.