Ox & Palm corned beef from distributor safe, not part of recall

It's been said that the key to an islander's heart is firmly attached to the side of a corned beef can. But recently WhatsApp chats have become flooded with news of a recall for Ox & Palm corned beef by the USDA. As the island's exclusive distributor of the beloved brand, General Manager of Micronesian Brokers, Hermie Queja wants to let his customers know that their product is all good to go.

"The corned beef on island that MBI Distributes is perfectly fit for consumption, there's no issues with it," he said.

The recall of the corned beef was announced by California distributor, MW Polar, who was advised by the Food Safety and Inspection Service to issue the voluntary recall. Queja says the MW Polar's Recall had nothing to do with a lack of quality assurance, but more so an oversight on the stateside distributor's part.

"In the case of MW Polar, they apparently brought in all this corned beef into the United States and were told that 297,000 pounds of corned beef, did not go through the proper import process requirement," he said. "Namely, you have to get it re-inspected by USDA."

According to Queja, Micronesian Brokers gets their beef straight from the source and not from the distributor that issued the recall, so as far as their products are concerned, they're all set for the weekend fried rice.

"Micronesian Brokers we are also a distributor and the difference is, we don't buy from MW polar, we buy directly from Heinz, Australia," he said. "And so, all of our products come directly into Guam and is inspected by a local USDA inspector. If anybody has any concerns about our product being inspected, they can call the GUAM USDA inspector Teresa Knecht at 929-4964 and she will gladly respond to any queries in regards to the corned beef on island."

Despite being the "authorized distributor" of Ox and Palm Products. Yesterday the Department of Public Health Sent a press release notifying the public that Ox & Palm Products at Cost-U-less were apart of the uninspected shipments from MW Polar leading to around 20,000 cans being pulled off store shelves.

Queja responded to the release saying "Those products with shipping marks ending with letters OAK were not purchased from Micronesian Brokers, the authorized and sole distributor of Ox & Palm corned beef. MBI's shipping mark always end with the letters GUA. The situation in CUL is clearly an isolated incident. Once again MBI'S Ox & Palm corned beef is safe to consume, USDA inspected and not part of the recall."