What they didn’t tell you about recent meat recall. (Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times)

Those products include two versions of Nestlé’s Hot Pocket sandwiches, Heinz’s Boston Market lasagna with meat sauce, General Mills’ Progresso Italian Wedding Soup and a variety of meat products from ConAgra, ranging from Slim Jim snacks to Hunt’s Manwich Original Sloppy Joe Sauce.

The companies stressed that the use of Hallmark/Westland meat was limited, and that they notified retailers and told them to pull those products.

But none had taken the usual step of notifying consumers through news releases and warnings on Web sites.

Why the secrecy? In part because the recall is indirect; the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) urged Hallmark/Westland to contact food producers that use its meat and urge them to pull their products. But the USDA did not contact food producers.

The food manufacturers said they are under no obligation to notify consumers.

Queue up Jim Gaffigan singing voice: “Death Pocket!”