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.

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

UPDATE

A half-billion eggs have been recalled in the nationwide investigation of a salmonella outbreak that Friday expanded to include a second Iowa farm. More than 1,000 people have already been sickened and the toll of illnesses is expected to increase.

Iowa’s Hillandale Farms said Friday it was recalling more than 170 million eggs after laboratory tests confirmed salmonella. The company did not say if its action was connected to the recall by Wright County Egg, another Iowa farm that recalled 380 million eggs earlier this week. The latest recall puts the total number of potentially tainted eggs at over half a billion.

An FDA spokeswoman said the two recalls are related. The strain of salmonella causing the poisoning is the same in both cases, salmonella enteritidis.

The eggs recalled Friday were distributed under the brand names Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms, Sunny Meadow, Wholesome Farms and West Creek. The new recall applies to eggs sold between April and August.

Hillandale said the eggs were distributed to grocery distribution centers, retail groceries and food service companies which service or are located in fourteen states, including Arkansas, California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.

Reed Saxon / AP

A sign warns customers of the recall of certain lots of eggs that had been previously sold at a supermarket in Los Angeles on Thursday. A salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds and led to the recall of hundreds of millions of eggs from one Iowa firm will likely grow, federal health officials said Thursday. No eggs currently on the shelf at this store were affected by the recall.

A food safety expert at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., said the source of the outbreak could be rodents, shipments of contaminated hens, or tainted feed. Microbiology professor Patrick McDonough said he was not surprised to hear about two recalls involving different egg companies, because in other outbreaks there have also been multiple sources.

Both plants could have a rodent problem, or both plants could have gotten hens that were already infected, or feed that was contaminated.

“You need biosecurity of the hen house, you want a rodent control program and you want to have hens put into that environment that are salmonella free,” McDonough said.

The salmonella bacteria is not passed from hen to hen, but usually from rodent droppings to chickens, he added. This strain of bacteria is found inside a chicken’s ovaries, and gets inside an egg.

CDC officials said Thursday that the number of illnesses related to the outbreak is expected to grow. That’s because illnesses occurring after mid-July may not be reported yet, said Dr. Christopher Braden, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control.

Almost 2,000 illnesses from the strain of salmonella linked to both recalls were reported between May and July, almost 1,300 more than usual, Braden said. No deaths have been reported. The CDC is continuing to receive information from state health departments as people report their illnesses.

The most common symptoms of salmonella are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within eight hours to 72 hours of eating a contaminated product. It can be life-threatening, especially to those with weakened immune systems.

The form of salmonella tied to the outbreak can be passed from chickens that appear healthy. And it grows inside eggs, not just on the shell, Braden noted.

Thoroughly cooking eggs can kill the bacteria. But health officials are recommending people throw away or return the recalled eggs

Egg Recall 2010

One of the nation’s largest egg producers is recalling 228 million eggs after being linked to an outbreak of Salmonella poisoning.

Recall: Products Containing Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
Federal health authorities announced Thursday the recall of a commonly used flavor enhancer after samples of the product were found to contain salmonella.

“I would say it’s likely to be in thousands of food products,” said Dr. Jenny Scott, senior adviser to the director at the Office of Food Safety at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, about the product, called hydrolyzed vegetable protein, also called HVP.

The bacterium, identified as Salmonella Tennessee, was found in HVP manufactured by Basic Food Flavors Inc. of Las Vegas, Nevada, the officials said.

HVP is used in processed foods, including soups, sauces, chilis, stews, hot dogs, gravy, seasoned snack foods and dressings.

“We are working hard to respond to this particular outbreak; we also are working hard to put in place the kinds of preventive control measures to prevent this kind of contamination from happening in the first place,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg.

Officials noted in a telephone conference call with reporters that no illnesses have been reported and any risk to consumers would be considered low.

“Many of the foods that incorporated this product at very low levels have kill steps in place that would eliminate salmonella,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, FDA’s principal deputy commissioner. He was referring to steps in preparation that would heat the product enough to kill any bacteria. “For those that don’t, we’re providing specific guidance around the need to recall,” he said.

But officials acknowledged they did not yet know just how many products might wind up being recalled.

“The manufacturer had many first-level consignees who obviously had individuals and firms that they sold to,” said Dr. Jeff Farrar, associate commissioner for food safety, FDA’s Office of Foods. “We expect this to get larger over the next several days to, actually, maybe several weeks.”

A call to the manufacturer was not returned immediately.

Sharfstein said the agency learned of the problem in early February, when a Basic Foods customer tested the product and reported to FDA that it was contaminated.

Farrar said he did not know when the plant was last inspected.

The recall affects all bulk HVP produced at the facility since September 17. The FDA posted several dozen products containing the ingredient at www.foodsafety.gov, but officials said the list was not complete. The recalled products include dips, salad dressings and soup mixes.

Farrar said the agency was recommending recalls of those products containing HVP that might be eaten without processing or cooking that would kill the bacteria. But more needs to be done, he said. “This situation clearly underscores the need for new food safety legislation to equip FDA with the tools we need to prevent contamination,” said Farrar.

Salmonella bacteria sometimes cause fatal infections in young children, elderly people and anyone with a weakened immune system.

Symptoms in healthy people might include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest said the recall is “yet more proof that the Food and Drug Administration needs more authority, more inspectors and more resources to ensure that our food supply is safe.”

It added, “Most Americans would be stunned to learn that FDA doesn’t even have the authority to make recalls like these mandatory.”

A bill passed in July by the House with overwhelming bipartisan support would go a long way toward beefing up the agency’s ability to intervene in such cases, said Erik Olson, director of food and consumer product safety at The Pew Charitable Trusts.

“The existing law is basically a reactive law,” he said. “If you find contamination problems, the FDA reacts and goes out and tries to find the problem and asks for a voluntary recall.”

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, the law pending in the Senate, “would change the whole system, modernize it to say we’re going to try to prevent the contamination before it occurs.”

But support for the bill is not universal.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is seeking changes in the bill before passage, according to Senior Policy Associate Kate Fitzgerald.

“The last thing we want to do as a government is to inhibit these regional food systems by poorly crafted regulation,” she said. Under the proposed legislation, a farmer selling broccoli heads would be classified as a farmer, but a farmer selling broccoli florets would be classified as a facility and subject to more rigorous controls, she said.

“No one benefits if we pass a food-safety bill but it doesn’t make the food system better,” she said.

Steve Etka, legislative director at the National Organic Coalition, offered a similar view. “We want to make sure the bill is clear that it’s targeted toward the riskiest behaviors,” he said. “Right now, we think it’s kind of missing the mark in that regard.”

Information current as of noon March 04, 2010
56 entries in list
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein Containing Products Recall List: Main Page

Note: This list includes products subject to recall in the United States since February 2010 related to hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) paste and powder distributed by Basic Food Flavors, Inc. This list will be updated with publicly available information as received. The information is current as of the date indicated. Once included, recalls will remain listed. If we learn that any information is not accurate, we will revise the list as soon as possible. When available, this database also includes photos of recalled products that have been voluntarily submitted by recalling firms to the FDA to assist the public in identifying those products that are subject to recall.

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.

The pistachios have sell-by dates of “7/30/09″ and “8/30/09.”

From Orca Distribution West Inc. of Anaheim, Calif., they are part of the April recall by Setton Pistachios of Terra Bella Inc. The company, in central California, is the second pistachio processor in the U.S.

For a list of all recalled pistachio, go to to the Food and Drug Administration Web site here.

By MICHAEL MOSS

The frozen pot pies that sickened an estimated 15,000 people with salmonella in 2007 left federal inspectors mystified. At first they suspected the turkey. Then they considered the peas, carrots and potatoes.

Banquet pot pies sickened thousands with salmonella in 2007. The corporate parent, ConAgra Foods, and others have decided to leave the “kill step” to eliminate pathogens up to the consumer’s cooking at home.

Found significant levels of harmless bacteria that show ingredients still raw when pies leave the factory.
Lab Test of Banquet Chicken Pot Pie (pdf)
Found significant levels of harmless bacteria that show ingredients still raw when pies leave the factory.
2008 C.D.C. Report on Salmonella in Pot Pies (pdf)
Relevant portion begins on the 5th page.
Food Safety for People Who Don’t Cook

Room for Debate Should consumers bear responsibility for the safe handling of the processed foods they eat?
* ConAgra Foods Incorporated

Banquet pot pies include exacting cooking instructions in order to kill any possible pathogens.

The pie maker, ConAgra Foods, began spot-checking the vegetables for pathogens, but could not find the culprit. It also tried cooking the vegetables at high temperatures, a strategy the industry calls a “kill step,” to wipe out any lingering microbes. But the vegetables turned to mush in the process.

So ConAgra — which sold more than 100 million pot pies last year under its popular Banquet label — decided to make the consumer responsible for the kill step. The “food safety” instructions and four-step diagram on the 69-cent pies offer this guidance: “Internal temperature needs to reach 165° F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots.”
Read whole story on

HAYWARD

April 4, 2009 6:27pm

• Possible contaminated pepper used in egg rolls

• Still more spices recalled

More than six tons of egg rolls stuffed with chicken are being recalled by EDS Wrap and Roll Foods LLC of Hayward. The egg rolls were sold to restaurants throughout California, the government says.

Meanwhile, the company at the center of a recall of the pepper used in the egg rolls has expanded its recall of still more spices.

The egg rolls contain black pepper spice products that may be linked to a multi-state outbreak of salmonellosis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service says Saturday.

The following products are subject to recall:

• 9.38 lb. packages of EDS Wrap and Roll Foods LLC “Chicken Egg Roll” which contains 100 pieces of 1.5 ounce chicken egg rolls

• 18.75 lb. packages of EDS Wrap and Roll Foods LLC “Chicken Egg Roll” which contains 100 pieces of 3.0 ounce chicken egg rolls

The frozen chicken egg rolls were produced between July 28, 2008 and March 27, 2009 and bear case codes “80210 through 80365″ or “90001 through 90089.”

The packages bear the establishment number “P-20350″ within the USDA Mark of Inspection printed on the side of the packages.

FSIS says it learned of the problem from the California Department of Public Health as a result of an ongoing investigation into the dry spice recall announced by FDA. FSIS has received no reports of illnesses associated with the consumption of these frozen chicken egg rolls.

The chicken egg roll products were distributed to restaurants and institutions in California.



Union International Food Co. of Union City is recalling 15-pound and smaller size packages of its Lian How brand dry spices, 30-pound boxes and smaller size packages of Lian How crushed chili, Uncle Chen brand black pepper (whole and ground) in 5-oz. retail containers, Uncle Chen white pepper (whole and ground) in 5-oz. retail containers and 5 pound plastic bags and the Uncle Chen brand Wasabi powder in 2.2 pound foil bags, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.

But there’s more. Also recalled by Union as of Saturday evening are the following:

• Cumin powder

• Cloves

• Crushed chili powder

• Dried cloves powder

• Orange peel powder

• Coriander powder

• Black sesame seed

• Coriander

• Peppercorn powder

• Fennel seed

• White sesame seed

• Fennel seed powder

• Tumeric

• Cinnamon powder

• Ginger powder

• Garlic salt

• Meat tenderizer

• Black pepper salt

• Bay leaves

• Five Spicys powder

• Nutmeg

• Star anise powder

Officials are investigating a multi-state Salmonella outbreak isolated Salmonella from an open container of Lian How White Pepper, which was found at a restaurant where some outbreak victims ate.

The Uncle Chen and Lian How brand spices are distributed in the states of California, Oregon and Washington to wholesalers, distributors, restaurant suppliers and restaurants.

The Lian How brand products are packaged in 10 or 15lbs. boxes with plastic liners, 5-pound plastic jars or 5-pound plastic bags.

The Lian How crushed chili is sold in 30-pound boxes, 8-pound boxes and 3-pound plastic jars.

The Lian How brand products are not generally sold directly to the retail consumer.

The Uncle Chen brand white & black pepper products (whole or ground) are sold at retail in 5oz. containers.

The Uncle Chen brand white pepper (whole or ground) is sold in 5-pound plastic bags.

The Uncle Chen brand Wasabi powder is sold in 2.2 pound foil bags.

Union International Foods Company says it has ceased the production and distribution of these products as the FDA, the California Department of Public Health and company continue the investigation as to nature and full extent of the potential contamination.