167,000 Pounds of Meat Withdrawn Due to Lack of Federal Inspection and Fake Seal in the U.S.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Tuesday the recall of about 167,639 pounds of raw meat — including pork, beef, and goat — produced by Star Meat Delivery Inc., headquartered in Lucama, North Carolina.

This action has been categorized as Class I, the highest risk level of the FSIS, reserved for situations where there is a reasonable probability that consuming a product will lead to serious health consequences or even death.

The recall was issued for two main reasons: the products were manufactured without the mandatory federal inspection outlined by the Federal Meat Inspection Act, and they bore a falsified USDA inspection mark with the establishment number "EST. 1363," a code that lacks any legitimate federal authorization.

"Food produced without inspection may contain undeclared allergens, harmful bacteria, or other contaminants that jeopardize consumer health and safety," the FSIS warned in its official notice.

The affected items were packaged in vacuum-sealed individual packets within cardboard boxes under the brand A&D Foods, and were distributed to a namesake distributor in Duluth, Georgia, before reaching retail outlets and restaurants nationwide.

The official list includes 23 product descriptions such as goat meat chunks, sliced beef ribeye, barbecue-style beef chuck, oxtail, short ribs, bone-in shank, beef feet, and soup bones.

Pork products listed include ground meat, chorizo, bone-in chops, feet cut into pieces, rib chunks, various shoulder cuts, sliced hock, and menudo mix.

The variety of cuts — featuring preparations common in Latin American and Asian cuisines like menudo, soup, and Korean barbecue — indicates that the company and its distributor primarily catered to immigrant communities and ethnic restaurants across the U.S.

The FSIS cautioned that identifying the products might be challenging for consumers, as supermarkets and butcher shops that received them may have applied their own price tags and handling instructions over the original boxes.

The key reference for identifying the affected goods is the presence of the code "EST. 1363" on the inspection mark: any product with this identification should be considered mislabeled and unfit for consumption, according to the agency.

The discrepancy was uncovered during routine FSIS surveillance activities. As of the announcement, no illnesses or injuries linked to the consumption of these products had been reported, though the agency expressed concern that some of the meat might still be stored in consumer, restaurant, or retailer freezers and refrigerators.

Anyone who purchased these products should discard them or return them to the point of purchase. Restaurants and retailers are prohibited from selling or serving them. For inquiries, the FSIS has made available the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-674-6854.

The FSIS stated that it will continue to update the product list as its investigation progresses and will perform checks to ensure that the company's clients have been notified and that the goods have been removed from the supply chain.

In August 2025, a similar issue affected about 32,000 pounds of meat produced by Sabrositos Hondureños, LLC, in New Jersey, also due to false inspection labels and production without federal oversight. The volume of Star Meat Delivery Inc.'s recall is significantly larger than that previous case.