Ban on E. Coli in Ground Beef Is to Extend to 6 More Strains
Filed under: Banned Foods, Beef Recalls, Caution with these Foods, e-coli, Product Recalls, Recall, Recalled Foods
The federal government will ban the sale of ground beef tainted with six toxic strains of E. coli bacteria that are increasingly showing up as the cause of severe illness from food. Officials have been under pressure from food safety advocates and some elected officials to do more to keep the potentially deadly bacteria out of meat, but the beef industry said the move was not needed and could force the price of ground beef to rise.
To help the ground beef industry prepare, the rule will begin next March.
Bob Nichols/United States Department of Agriculture, via Associated Press
“We’re doing this to prevent illness and to save lives,” said Dr. Elisabeth Hagen.
The new rule, which officials said would be announced on Tuesday, means that six relatively rare forms of E. coli will be treated the same as their notorious and more common cousin, a strain called E. coli O157:H7. That strain has caused deaths and illnesses and prompted the recall of millions of pounds of ground beef and other products. It was banned from ground beef in 1994 after an outbreak killed four children and sickened hundreds of people.
“We’re doing this to prevent illness and to save lives,” said Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, the head of food safety for the Agriculture Department, which regulates meat. “This is one of the biggest steps forward in the protection of the beef supply in some time.”
It is not illegal to sell fresh meat or poultry containing most toxic bacteria, like salmonella; they are frequently found on groceries’ meat, and thorough cooking typically kills the pathogens. But since the 1994 outbreak, which involved hamburgers served at Jack in the Box restaurants, regulators have treated E. coli in ground beef differently.
Many people eat rare or undercooked ground beef, and if it is tainted, resulting illnesses can be deadly. Toxic E. coli, in its most common O157 form, is so virulent that just a few organisms can make people violently sick. The toxic E. coli live in the digestive tracts of cows and can get on meat during slaughter. It can cause bloody diarrhea, stomach cramps and, in severe cases, kidney failure.
In recent years, scientists found that several other strains of E. coli in food were also making people sick, and they identified the six most potent, called the Big Six non-O57s. Beginning at least four years ago, the U.S.D.A. began considering extending its ban to those additional toxic strains.
But the American Meat Institute, an industry group, has argued that safety measures already in place are sufficient. On Monday, the group was highly critical of the extended ban.
“Imposing this new regulatory program on ground beef will cost tens of millions of federal and industry dollars — costs that likely will be borne by taxpayers and consumers,” the group said in a statement. “It is neither likely to yield a significant public health benefit nor is it good public policy.”
While several outbreaks caused by the Big Six strains have been linked to produce, the group pointed to the fact that only one has been related to ground beef. In that outbreak, last year, three people fell ill.
“It’s just not supported by the science,” James H. Hodges, the institute’s executive vice president, said in an interview.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that E. coli strains other than O157:H7 cause nearly 113,000 illnesses each year, one-third of which can be attributed to tainted beef, according to U.S.D.A. officials. Until recently, few cases were reported, however, because most medical labs were not equipped to test for the less common forms.
The Agriculture Department will begin enforcing the rule in March, to give the meat industry time to prepare. The rule will apply to hamburger meat and trim or beef scraps that go into it, as well as some other products, like steaks that have been tenderized with machines that use needles to poke minute holes in the surface. Some meat processors have begun to test for the six strains in recent months in anticipation of federal action, and many others will most likely begin testing once the government begins its own testing.
Under the rule, raw meat containing the Big Six E. coli cannot be sold to the public. Currently, most packing plants divert meat containing E. coli O157:H7 for use in cooked products, and will most likely do the same with meat containing the new strains, as well. The bacteria is killed by heating the meat to 160 degrees.
While the new rule significantly expands the Agriculture Department’s beef ban, it does not include all forms of toxic E. coli. A highly virulent strain of the bacteria that caused dozens of deaths among people who ate contaminated sprouts in Europe this summer is not one of the Big Six because it has not been detected as a cause of illness in the United States.
Dr. Hagen said the list of banned pathogens might grow. “This is where we started and it doesn’t rule out the possibility that we would consider other pathogens in the future,” she said.
The new rule highlighted the patchwork and often confusing nature of food safety regulation, where most meat is under the jurisdiction of the U.S.D.A. while most other foods, including produce, are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The F.D.A. already considers it illegal to sell food containing any bacteria, including toxic forms of E. coli or other substances that could make people sick.
Dr. Hagen also said the rule did not conflict with the Obama administration’s push to cut back on regulation that could increase costs for business at a time of economic hardship.
“There’s really no inconsistency between having a strong economy and having a safe food supply,” Dr. Hagen said. The U.S.D.A. estimated that the rule would cost the industry up to $10 million a year for testing and holding meat back from the fresh ground beef market.
“The amount this is going to cost is insignificant compared to the lives that will be saved,” said Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, who pushed for the expanded rule.
After the U.S.D.A. banned the O157 form of E. coli from ground beef in 1994, the meat industry sued to block the move, but the agency prevailed in court.
Mr. Hodges, of the meat institute, said the group had yet to see a full version of the rule and would consult with its members before deciding how to respond.
Ground Turkey recalled-Salmonella
Filed under: Product Recalls, Recall, Recalled Foods, Salmonella
WASHINGTON — Minnesota-based Cargill Inc. recalled more ground turkey products Sunday because a test showed salmonella in a sample from an Arkansas plant less than a month after production resumed following an earlier recall and shutdown.
The company recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey last month after a salmonella outbreak that federal health officials say had sickened 107 people in 31 states by Aug. 11. One person died.
That recall covered products from Cargill’s plant in Springdale, Ark.
The company shut down the plant but said Aug. 17 it had resumed limited production after the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved additional safety measures.
The USDA said Sunday that Cargill was recalling about 185,000 pounds of ground turkey products made after production resumed because a sample tested positive for salmonella. No illnesses linked to those products have been reported.
Cargill spokesman Mike Martin did not immediately return a phone message left Sunday.
Earlier Article
A Minnesota-based food company recalled about 185,000 pounds of ground turkey Sunday that may be contaminated with salmonella.
The voluntary recall by Cargill Inc. comes about a month after the company recalled 36 million pounds of fresh and frozen ground turkey that health officials believe caused illness in more than 100 people in 26 states and at least one death.
The recalled turkey came from the same Cargill plant in Springdale, Ark., that was the source of the tainted turkey recalled in August.
Health officials say the recalled turkey contains Salmonella Heidelberg, a strain of salmonella that is resistant to most commonly prescribed antibiotics.
The latest recalled turkey is labeled with the brand names Honeysuckle White, HEB and Kroger. All packages include the establishment number P-963 inside the USDA mark of inspection.
Cargill has posted a list of the recalled products on its website.
In a statement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it had not found any illnesses caused by the latest turkey recalled.
The recalled turkey was produced at the Arkansas plant on Aug. 23, 24, 30 and 31. Federal health officials said they collected samples at the plant after the previous recall and found turkey collected on Aug. 24 tested positive for Salmonella Heidelberg.
Pig Ear treats for dogs recalled, salmonella contamination feared
Filed under: Pet Food Safety, Pets-Dogs-Cats, Product Recalls, Recall, Salmonella
An Illinois company is recalling pet chews made of pig’s ears because they could be contaminated with salmonella.
One illness, to a dog in Missouri, has been linked to the chews, called Pig Ears for Pet Treats. The product is being recalled by the Keys Manufacturing Co. Inc. of Paris, Ill.
Salmonella can affect animals, and there is risk to people from handling contaminated pet products.
The bacteria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, elderly people and those with weakened immune systems. Symptoms include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Pets with salmonella may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea fever and vomiting.
The pet treats were distributed in Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.
Consumers can return the pet treats to the place of purchase for a full refund.
Online:
Company website: http://www.keysmanufacturing.com
Melamine Tainted Milk Powder Still Being Stockpiled in China
Filed under: Caution with these Foods, Children Products Recalled, china, China Product Safety, Dangerous Foods, Effects of Melamine, Melamine, Product Recalls, Recall, Recalled Foods, U.S.A and Melamine Scare, What it is?
China was fighting to maintain public confidence in its food safety after a massive stockpile of melamine-tainted milk powder was seized during raids on warehouses in the nation’s biggest city.
The seizures in Chongqing come three years after the 2008 Sanlu milk scandal, in which three babies died and 300,000 others were sickened by melamine-tainted milk in an episode that fatally undermined already fragile public trust in the government’s ability to keep food safe.
The discovery of the tainted milk powder, which was due to be made into pastry and ice-cream, has drawn attention to the inability of China’s government to police China’s vast and fragmented food chain.
In a bid to restore confidence, the city authorities in Chongqing, a municipal area with 35m inhabitants, have announced a 100-day crackdown on food and drug fraud in a mirror-image of a crackdown last year on mafia crime.
On Monday some 7,900 police in Chongqing were reportedly deployed to conduct city-wide raids on 600 premises suspected of producing illegal or fake food and pharmaceuticals.
Cucumbers recalled in nine states
Filed under: e-coli, Product Recalls, Recall, Recalled Foods, Salmonella
A North Carolina vegetable and fruit distributor has recalled cucumbers distributed to nine states, including Illinois and Indiana, after some of the vegetables distributed to Florida were found contaminated with salmonella, according to the company. Only one lot of about 1,600 cartons of cucumbers distributed to wholesalers is affected, with 139 of the cartons distributed in Illinois and 30 distributed in Indiana, according to a news release from L&M Companies, Inc., of Raleigh, N.C., on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Web site. Because the cucumbers were picked on March 29 and FDA guidelines indicate cucumbers are fresh for 10 to 14 days after being harvested, they are already largely past their shelf life, the company said in the relase. Of the 169 cartons of cucumbers distributed in Illinois and Indiana, 50 contained about 50 pounds of cucumbers each and 119 contained 24 cucumbers each, company spokeswoman Lee Anne Oxford said in an email. Of those, 50 of the 50-pound cartons and 89 of the 24-count cartons were distributed in Illinois, and all the cartons distributed in Indiana were 24-count cartons, she said. That works out to a total of about 5,000 pounds of cucumbers. L&M was not disclosing the wholesale distributors of the cucumbers, because they may have sold the produce to various retailers or restaurants. However, “The company has accounted for the entire lot of recalled product and requested that customers who may still have the recalled product in inventory remove it from commerce and destroy it immediately,” L&M said in the news release. FDA inspectors found salmonella on cucumbers in a cooler at Four Seasons Produce of Central Florida, Inc. on April 13, and informed L&M. The company recalled the entire lot of cucumbers harvested in south Florida on March 29; the largest number of cucumbers were distributed in Florida and Mississippi, but other than Illinois and Indiana, the bulk cucumbers also were sold to wholesalers in New York, Tennessee, Nebraska, Wyoming and Texas. Because the cucumbers were distributed to wholesalers, they may have been distributed to other states as well, according to the company. There are no reports of people becoming ill after having eaten the cucumbers, according to the company. Salmonella is a bacteria that can cause serious or even fatal infections in young children, and others with weakened immune systems. Salmonella symptoms include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. The bulk cartons are marked Nature’s Delight and have lot number PL-RID-002990. Anyone with questions about the recall can call L&M at 919-981-8003, although the hotline is only staffed Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central Time. Messages left over the weekend will be returned, according to the company.
72,000 pounds of canned chicken salad recalled
(CNN) — The discovery of hard plastic inside packages prompted a nationwide recall of 72,000 pounds of canned chicken salad, one of several recalls involving poultry and meat products issued through U.S. food safety authorities in recent days.
The Suter Company is recalling 8.2-ounce packages of the “Bumble Bee Lunch on the Run Chicken Salad Complete Lunch Kit” and 3.5-ounce packages of “Bumble Bee Chicken Salad with Crackers,” according to a statement released Sunday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
While the company is headquartered in Sycamore, Illinois, its products are sold from coast to coast. The recalled products — which have a August 2011 “best-by” date for the lunch kit, and February 2012 corresponding date for the cracker package — were put together and shipped out to distributors and stores between August 14 and 28 of this year.
The recall was prompted by complaints from people who found pieces of loose plastic inside their Bumble Bee packages. The federal agency noted in its release that it hasn’t received any reports of people getting hurt or sick as a result.
The recall is a Class II, which means there is a “remote probability of adverse health consequences,” according to the Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Meanwhile, two unrelated and separate but potentially more dangerous recalls announced late last week were categorized as Class I, equating to a “reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.”
Federal food safety authorities said Friday that Diana’s Mexican Food Products, of Lawndale, California, is recalling 41,670 pounds of chicken tamales.
The tamales contain whey, a known allergen. But the packages don’t note the whey on its labels, said the Food Safety and Inspection Service, potentially imperiling consumers.
The tamales, which went out to restaurants in California, were produced between February and December 2, 2010. There are no known reports of adverse reactions to the undeclared presence of whey, which was discovered by federal authorities in a “routine inspection.”
One day earlier, Brooklyn-based N.Y. Gourmet Salads recalled various meat and poultry products because, prior to their distribution, they hadn’t been inspected by federal health inspectors.
While there have been no reports of sicknesses, a public health alert was issued October 30 for a host of Gourmet Salad’s products packaged between March 11 and October 29 of this year. The recall list includes 12 items — ranging from Swedish meatballs to stuffed cabbage to grilled chicken — all wrapped in 4.5-, 5- and 6-pound packages.
Recalls of Benadryl, Motrin, Rolaids
Johnson & Johnson, which has been beset with recalls of Tylenol and other consumer products over the past year, has recalled almost 5 million additional packages of Benadryl, Motrin and Rolaids because of manufacturing “insufficiencies.”
J&J said the recalls, like many of the earlier ones, involved products made at its plant in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. The facility was closed earlier this year to fix quality-control lapses, including unsanitary conditions.
The latest actions involve 4 million packages of Children’s Benadryl Allergy Fastmelt Tablets in cherry and grape flavors. The allergy drug was distributed in the United States and other markets, a company spokeswoman said.
An estimated 800,000 bottles of Junior Strength Motrin Caplets, a painkiller, were recalled in the United States.
The Benadryl and Motrin recalls were initiated after a J&J review “revealed insufficiencies in the development of the manufacturing process,” J&J said.
The company spokeswoman declined to identify the specific manufacturing lapses. She said there was no indication that the products failed to meet quality standards.
In addition, about 71,000 packages of Rolaids antacid, in a cherry flavored extra-strength Softchews formulation, were recalled in the United States.
J&J said the Rolaids were made by a third party, and were recalled following consumer complaints about “an uncharacteristic consistency or texture, traced to crystallized sugar in the product.”
Unlike previous recalls, J&J did not issue press releases announcing the latest actions by its McNeil consumer healthcare division. It posted them on a company website.
“This is not a consumer-level recall; consumers do not have to take any action,” the spokeswoman said when asked why press releases were not issued.
She said all three new actions instead were “wholesale and retail level” recalls, which called instead on wholesalers and retail outlets to take action.
(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson in New York and Thyagaraju Adinarayan and S. John Tilak in Bangalore. Editing by Jon Loades-Carter and Robert MacMillan)
Fruit Smoothies Linked to Outbreak of Typhoid Fever in U.S.
Filed under: Is it Safe?, Product Recalls, Recalled Foods, Typhoid Fever
Friday , August 13, 2010
A rare U.S. outbreak of typhoid fever has been linked to a frozen tropical fruit product used to make smoothies, health officials reported Thursday.
Seven cases have been confirmed — three in California and four in Nevada. Two more California cases are being investigated. Five people were hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The CDC said five of the victims drank milkshakes or smoothies made with frozen mamey fruit pulp. Four of them used pulp sold by Goya Foods Inc. of Secaucus, N.J.
Mamey is a sweet, reddish tropical fruit grown mainly in Central and South America. It is also known as zapote or sapote. It is peeled and mashed to make pulp, the CDC said.
The company has recalled packages of the pulp, sold in mostly western states. A sample from one package found in Las Vegas tested positive for the bacteria that causes typhoid, the Food and Drug Administration reported Wednesday.
A phone call to Goya seeking comment was not immediately returned Thursday.
No other food was linked to the illnesses, which occurred between April and July. The victims range in age from 4 to 31, said CDC spokeswoman Arleen Porcell-Pharr.
Typhoid fever is a life-threatening illness caused by a type of bacteria called Salmonella typhi. It’s become rare in the United States. There are only about 400 cases annually, and most people caught it while traveling abroad.
Three food-related outbreaks have been reported in the last 12 years. One, also linked to frozen mamey pulp, caused three illnesses in Florida in 1999. One, linked to Gulf Coast oysters, sickened six in Texas in 2006. The third, linked to a Maryland restaurant, caused four illnesses.
Symptoms include a sustained fever as high as 103 to 104 degrees, along with headache. weakness, stomach pains or loss of appetite. Some patients have a rash of flat, rose-colored spots. It can be treated with antibiotics.
It’s not clear if there will be additional cases, said Dr. Ezra Barzilay, the CDC epidemiologist supervising the investigation. It can take between three days to eight weeks for an infected person to develop symptoms, he noted.
The disease is still common in the developing world. The bacteria passes through the intestinal tract and often spreads to others through feces-tainted food or water. Freezing does not kill it.
The recalled mamey pulp was sold in 14-ounce plastic packages in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.
CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/typhoidfever/
FDA recall: http://www.fda.gov/Safety
/Recalls/ucm222223.htm
Huge Baby Children Product Recall Johnson & Johnson
Filed under: Bad Drugs, Banned Foods, Children Products Recalled, Product Recalls, Recall
A division of Johnson & Johnson is recalling 43 over-the-counter medicines made for infants and children — including liquid versions of Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl — after federal regulators identified what they called deficiencies at the company’s manufacturing facility.
The voluntary recall, which was announced late Friday by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, affects hundreds of thousands of bottles of medicine in homes and on store shelves throughout the United States and its territories and in nine other countries — a vast portion of the children’s medicine market.
The Food and Drug Administration is advising parents and caregivers to stop using the affected products, although Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg called the potential for serious health problems resulting from the medications “remote.”
FDA inspectors had begun a routine inspection April 19 in the company’s Fort Washington, Pa., plant when they noticed “manufacturing deficiencies” that triggered the recall, said Douglas Stearn, a senior FDA official.
Stearn said the plant’s manufacturing process was “not in control,” a term regulators use to describe flawed procedures that affect the composition of medicine. Federal investigators do not know when the problems at McNeil began, but Stearn said that “this does go back in time” and that “we have to try to figure that out.”
While the FDA investigates, McNeil has suspended operations at the facility. In a statement, the company said: “Some of the products included in the recall may contain a higher concentration of active ingredient than is specified; others contain inactive ingredients that may not meet internal testing requirements; and others may contain tiny particles.” It said the problems may affect “purity, potency or quality.”
Marc Boston, a McNeil spokesman, would not discuss the deficiencies cited by the FDA or say when the manufacturing facility was shut down. The company also declined to disclose the amount of products affected by the recall. In addition to the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam, the medicines were sold in Canada; the Dominican Republic; Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates; Fiji; Guatemala; Jamaica; Panama; Trinidad and Tobago; and Kuwait.
A complete list of recalled products is on the company’s Web site.
McNeil received consumer complaints associated with some of the recalled medicines, but the company’s decision to pull them was not made on “the basis of adverse medical events,” said Boston, who declined to elaborate.
If a child who has taken any of the recalled medications exhibits any unexpected symptoms, parents or caregivers should contact a doctor, federal officials said. Consumers or health-care providers who experience problems connected to the recalled medicines are asked to contact the FDA.
As of Saturday, the FDA was not aware of any health problems related to the recalled products, said spokeswoman Elaine Gansz Bobo.
Parents and caregivers can use generic versions of the affected medicines; they are not affected by the recall. The FDA cautioned against giving adult versions to infants and children, noting the potential for serious problems.
This is at least the third major recall of Tylenol products by McNeil since 2008.
In January, McNeil recalled 49 types of Tylenol products made for adults and two Tylenol products made for children after consumers complained of a mold-like odor and of temporary and minor nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. The company determined that some of the medicines had been contaminated by trace amounts of a chemical that is sometimes present on shipping and storage material.
In 2008, McNeil recalled 21 types of children’s and infants’ Tylenol liquid products, saying that although the products met internal standards, an unused portion of one inactive ingredient did not meet all quality standards
Pepper Salami Recalled- salmonella outbreak
Filed under: Beef Recalls, Dangerous Foods, Product Recalls, Recall, Recalled Foods, Salmonella
Salami recalled in multistate salmonella outbreak
A Rhode Island company, Daniele Inc., recalls 1.24 million pounds of pepper-crusted salami after officials trace the outbreak to its product, based on a comparison of shopping receipts.
A Rhode Island meat company recalled 1.24 million pounds of pepper-coated salami Saturday, after officials conducting a months-long, multistate investigation of a salmonella outbreak compared shopping receipts of those who got sick.
The recall by Daniele Inc. comes amid an outbreak that has sickened 184 people in 38 states since July.
Daniele has been identified as the source of the ongoing outbreak by William Keene, a senior epidemiologist at the public health division in Oregon, where eight people have fallen ill.
Keene said Saturday that some questions remain, such as whether it was the meat or the pepper that was contaminated.
Investigators in Washington state found that many of the 14 residents there who got sick shopped at Costco, Keene said. Costco did not return calls seeking comment on the recall Saturday, but it has posted notice of it on its website.
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