By now you have probably heard the news about a voluntary recall of beef processed for human consumption at Rancho Feeding Corp. in Petaluma during the period January 2013 – January 2014. This recall is currently pending investigation by the USDA. Rancho is one of only two USDA certified slaughterhouses in Northern California that processes custom beef.

Rancho has a solid reputation among the leading beef ranchers in the region. This small, locally owned & operated slaughterhouse harvests beef for all of the top quality (pastured/grass-finished) independent beef producers in Northern California including BN Ranch, Marin Sun Farms, Pastoral Plate/Stemple Creek, Tara Firma Farms – all of which supply their custom processed beef to SFRAW.

Our vendors notified us this week that the recall has just been expanded to include “custom processed” beef. This includes all beef products custom produced for them during this period last year. Although we feel that there is no question as to the safety or integrity of our supplier’s beef products, to cooperate with the USDA recall request, BN Ranch, Marin Sun Farms and Pastoral Plate took action immediately and have already picked up all beef inventory that we had in stock. This included SFRAW Beef Grind, Formula & treats that use BN Ranch beef ingredients.

We wanted to let you know more about this recall as soon as possible – even though there have been no reports of illness (people or animals) due to consumption of these products.

As small scale, local, fully pastured beef producers, our beef suppliers are meticulous in the care and handling of their cattle from birth to box. To ensure proper handling and high quality control, as part of the custom processing procedures, they have their own representatives handle and deliver the living animals off the pasture and over to Rancho. BN Ranch representatives even “walk the line” accompanying their animals & carcasses along side USDA inspectors and Rancho staff from harvest through final packaging of every pound of the product. The meat harvested from these farms during this period of time passed USDA inspection. We trust them when they tell us that the handling was done in accordance with USDA regulations, but more importantly, to their high standards.

As stated above there have been no reports of illness, nor reports of animal mistreatment, mishandling of the animals or food related to this beef recall.

Today we learned that the recall appears to have involved product manufactured from the processing of two dairy cows (processed on a different day from the custom beef products) that allegedly wasn’t fully inspected (documented and/or labelled properly).

While there is a lot of speculation surrounding this recall, we’d appreciate your patience and ask you to reserve judgment until the matter is resolved. Every day we are learning more about what happened and is happening with Rancho. If Rancho closes for good, this will have a tremendous impact on your local beef supply.

At this time, if you have any beef products that you purchased at SFRAW and would like to return it, feel free to come in this weekend or contact us via email at sfraw@sfraw.com.  Please be aware of the following processes for returns:

SFRAW Brand beef formulas, grinds and Beef-Pumpkin Patties and Beef Jerky: If you wish to return any items, these products will receive immediate store credit.

BN Ranch, Marin Sun Farms, Pastoral Plate/Stemple Creek beef products: We will accept and log all returns as they come in. We are currently working with our vendors to determine reimbursement or credit for these products.

Tara Firma will accept returns, if necessary, but is standing up to the recall. Please find Tara’s position statements here:

Rancho Update #3 TFRecall2.12.14

Rancho Update #2 TFRecall2.11.14

Your Food is Safe: Rancho Veal Update TFRecall2.10.14

Please join us in supporting these outstanding producers that work so hard, and with such a thin margin, to produce the highest quality, wholesome, healthy, and safe food. This recall can have a devastating impact on their business, so it is important that we stand with them in support, just as they stand behind the very good food that they produce.

Although our freezers were emptied of beef inventory earlier this week, we have fresh beef deliveries expected to arrive on Friday. We will be using fresh beef from Marin Sun Farms to fill all beef orders and to fill the demand for walk-in sales. We currently have Prather Ranch and limited Pastoral Plate beef available for sale. Please be sure to buy this beef. We plan to produce more of our SFRAW beef products next week using fresh product from Marin Sun Farms. We do not know when we will have BN Ranch beef back in stock – please stay tuned.