Here’s what you need to know about an E. coli outbreak and a home meal delivery service
The CDC gave an update Wednesday on an E. coli outbreak involving HelloFresh home meal kits, four days after the USDA issued a public health alert about the ground beef in question.
READ MORE: A public health alert about a popular home meal delivery company and E. coli
Here’s what you need to know:
How many people have been sickened and where are they?
The CDC says seven people have been infected with E. coli across six states — two in New Jersey, one each in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington. Six of the people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.
What food is involved?
The 85% lean ground beef came in 10-ounce packs and have either “EST#46481 L1 22 155” or “EST#46481 L5 22 155” on the packaging. It was in HelloFresh meal kids shipped from July 2 through July 22. If you have this ground beef, throw it away.
The E. coli wasn’t found in the ground beef. But, the CDC says, six of the seven people in the outbreak were interviewed and all said they ate ground beef from HelloFresh before getting ill.
What are the symptoms of an E. coli infection?
E. coli symptoms usually arrive three to four days after infection and include five to seven days of vomiting, bloody diarrhea, fever and stomachaches. This outbreak involves E. coli O157:H7, the version most likely to lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), the kidney failure that can make E. coli a fatal infection.
