Massive Meat Recall Includes Hot Dogs, Bacon

Meat may be off the menu if products in your refrigerator are on a long list of recalled items. Kayem Foods is recalling roughly 1.6 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products—including hot dogs, bacon, brisket, ham, and chicken sausage—after a warehouse cooling failure led to what federal officials call possible "temperature abuse," Fox Business reports. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service labeled it a Class I recall, its most serious tier, citing a "reasonable probability" of "serious, adverse health consequences or death" for those who consume the products.

The items, produced between March 31 and Oct. 7 and shipped nationwide and to Hong Kong, carry establishment numbers EST. M/P 7839, EST. P 20935A, or EST. M 9520 in the USDA inspection mark. A full list of products can be seen here, with product images here. No illnesses have been reported, but consumers are urged to toss or return affected products. The issue was detected after a retail customer complained about warm product temperatures on Oct. 1 and the company launched an investigation, NBC News reports.

Food safety experts stress that cooking meat to the proper temperature won't guarantee that it is safe, NBC reports. "One of the most important things for consumers to understand is that you cannot reliably determine whether food is safe by looking at it, smelling it, or tasting it," says Melissa Vaccaro at the National Environmental Health Association. "Food can contain disease-causing microorganisms without looking or smelling spoiled. And never taste questionable food to decide whether it is safe."