USDA recalls 167,639 pounds of meat sold under a false inspection mark

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has recalled approximately 167,639 pounds of raw pork, beef and goat products from Star Meat Delivery Inc. after federal inspectors determined the meat was produced without federal inspection and shipped out under a false USDA inspection mark. The recall, announced September 22, 2026, covers products distributed nationwide to restaurants and retailers under a separate company’s label. No illnesses or injuries have been reported in connection with the recall.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service said it uncovered the problem during routine surveillance activity, not because a consumer or retailer flagged an issue, which means the mislabeled meat had already moved through the supply chain for an unspecified period before regulators caught it.

An Inspection Number That Wasn’t Supposed to Ship

Star Meat Delivery, based in Lucama, North Carolina, packed and shipped its raw pork, beef and goat cuts bearing establishment number EST. 1363, a number FSIS says was applied to meat that had never actually gone through federal inspection. Food Poison Journal reported that the fake inspection shield bearing that number was printed and applied to roughly 80 tons of uninspected meat, consistent with the 167,639-pound total FSIS attached to the recall. The product moved from Star Meat Delivery to A&D Foods, a Georgia-based distributor, which then supplied it to restaurants and retailers around the country under its own label rather than Star Meat Delivery’s name.

The recall spans roughly two dozen individual A&D Foods-labeled products, according to The Healthy’s reporting on the FSIS notice, including ribeye, chuck, oxtail, short ribs and shanks; ground pork, chorizo, pork chops, pork feet and hocks; a pre-mixed menudo package; and various goat cuts. That range of products spread the recalled meat across several different retail categories rather than a single cut or species, which is part of why FSIS pushed the notice out nationally instead of limiting it to a specific region.

The Company Disputes How the Number Got There

Star Meat Delivery has pushed back on the idea that it counterfeited a federal inspection mark. The company told WCTI12 that establishment number 1363 was legitimately reserved for it during the USDA’s application process, and that the products in question were processed for the Georgia distributor while that federal approval was still pending rather than after being denied. “For nearly 10 years, Star Meat Delivery has operated primarily as a meat broker and distributor,” the company said in a statement responding to the recall.

That account does not change FSIS’s underlying finding — the meat left Star Meat Delivery’s facility without having completed federal inspection, whatever the status of its establishment application — but it does complicate the picture of intent. FSIS’s public notice characterizes the mark as false; the company’s own explanation describes an inspection process that was simply incomplete when the shipment went out. Neither FSIS nor Star Meat Delivery has released documentation resolving which characterization is accurate, and the recall notice itself does not address the company’s pending-application explanation.

What an Uninspected Label Actually Risks

FSIS’s concern with uninspected meat is not limited to the paperwork violation. Meat that skips federal inspection “may contain undeclared allergens, harmful bacteria, or other contaminants that put consumer health and safety at risk,” the agency said, because inspection is the mechanism meant to catch those problems before a product reaches a shelf or a kitchen. Without it, there is no federal record of the animal’s condition at slaughter, the plant’s sanitation at the time of processing, or whether the cuts were held at safe temperatures throughout.

FSIS put that risk in blunt terms: “all products with the false label ‘EST. 1363’ should be considered unsafe to eat,” the agency said, a standard that applies regardless of whether any individual package actually carried a contaminant, because the point of the inspection process the meat skipped is to catch that kind of problem before it ships.

FSIS is advising consumers and businesses to check freezers and refrigerators for the affected A&D Foods products, discard or return anything matching the recall, and contact a health care provider if they experienced symptoms after eating any of it. Retailers that are unsure whether they received shipments from A&D Foods are being told to check directly with the distributor rather than assume their inventory is unaffected, since the recall notice does not name every retail account that carried the meat. Consumers with questions can reach Star Meat Delivery directly or contact the USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline, which fields questions on recalled products nationwide rather than just those tied to a single company.

The recall leaves an open question FSIS has not yet answered publicly: how long Star Meat Delivery’s uninspected product moved through A&D Foods’ distribution network before the agency’s surveillance activity caught it, and whether any of the roughly 167,639 pounds had already been sold through to consumers before the September 22 notice went out. FSIS has also not said whether its inspectors are examining other shipments Star Meat Delivery sent out under the same establishment number before the recall, or whether the 167,639-pound figure represents the company’s full output under that number since its USDA application began.

Georgia’s role in the case is largely passive in FSIS’s telling: A&D Foods is described in the recall notice as a distributor that received and redistributed the mislabeled meat, not as a party that mishandled or misrepresented it further. The finding is central for anyone trying to trace accountability through the supply chain, since it places the origin of the false inspection mark squarely at Star Meat Delivery’s North Carolina facility rather than at any point after the meat left the state.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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