Please rethink your quick and easy dinner plans if they involved Hot Pockets. Unless you have a taste for ”diseased and unsound animals.”
Walmart and Giant Food are among the chains pulling frozen hamburger patties, Hot Pockets Philly Steak & Cheese and Croissant Crust Philly Steak & Cheese from shelves on the heels of a recall by meat processor Rancho Feeding Corporation.
According to the USDA news release, the products are “unwholesome or otherwise are unfit for human food and must be removed from commerce.” The Class 1 recall issued February 14, 2014 noted, ”beef products associated with recall 13 were shipped to distribution centers and retail establishments in California, Florida, Illinois, Oregon, Texas and Washington.”
Rancho recalled a total of 8,742,700 pounds of beef and veal products – everything it processed in 2013. The USDA release detailed the animal cuts that could possibly be contaminated, and the list is as alarming as the health issue itself.
Beef omasum (stomach), beef feet, beef tripe, veal trim, and mountain oysters (yes, bull calf testicles to you) are among the products that were not properly inspected at the Rancho facility and later provided to processed food manufacturers like Hot Pockets.
While I may enjoy eating high on the hog now, as the offspring of southern descendants, I’m no stranger to the nasty bits. Any chef will tell you these have the most flavor and by virtue of them being the nasty bits, the price is certainly right. But I’ll tell you what. Methinks the Hot Pockets lovers would like a little more transparency on the ingredient list. Because who wouldn’t like a little to know exactly how one defines ‘cooked beef steak ground & formed’? And ‘Flavors’ is a wee bit vague too. Just let me know if I’m about to ingest bull appendages and let me make the decision on that. My foot can go in my mouth, but a bull’s foot cannot.
No illnesses have been reported to date. Aside from everyone who threw up in their mouths just a little bit at thought of consuming diseased bull testicles.