Hannaford Hamburger Behind Northeast US Salmonella Outbreak

Fourteen people in the US northeast have been infected with a strain of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium. Eleven of the 14 victims reported having eaten ground beef; in ten cases, the beef was purchased at a Hannaford store. Seven of the 14 victims (50%) were hospitalized.

Three illnesses were reported in New Hampshire. Other outbreak victims are from Maine (4), New York State (4) and Vermont (1). Three of the four New York State victims were among the seven who were hospitalized.

The outbreak has been traced epidemiologically to fresh in-store ground beef prepared in and purchased at Hannaford stores in Maine, New York, New Hampshire and Vermont between October 12 and November 20, 2011. The 85% ground beef was the most common variety associated with the outbreak.

Hannaford has recalled the following ground beef products (all package sizes) bearing Sell-by dates of Dec. 17, 2011 or earlier that were sold at the supermarket’s stores throughout Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont:

73% Hannaford Regular Ground Beef
75% Hannaford Regular Ground Beef
80% Hannaford Regular Ground Beef
85% Hannaford Regular Ground Beef
90% Hannaford Regular Ground Beef
80% Taste of Inspirations Angus Ground Beef
85% Taste of Inspirations Angus Ground Beef
90% Taste of Inspirations Angus Ground Beef
85% Nature’s Place Ground Beef
90% Nature’s Place Ground Beef

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has not been able to identify the suppliers who furnished Hannaford with the raw meat that was used to prepare the recalled ground beef, due to what the agency described as the retailer’s “limited records.” The possibility exists that raw beef contaminated with the Salmonella outbreak strain may also have been supplied to other retailers in the region.

Consumers who purchased ground beef from a Hannaford Supermarket should check their refrigerators and freezers for the recalled product. Hannaford is urging its customers to discard or return any packages of ground beef bearing a sell-by date of Dec. 17, 2011 or earlier. Anyone experiencing symptoms of salmonellosis should seek medical attention.

FSIS reminds consumers to “safely prepare their raw meat products, including fresh and frozen, and only consume ground beef that has been cooked to a temperature of 160° F.”

IAMS Puppy Food – This Time, It’s A Recall

On November 25th, Price Chopper (a regional supermarket chain based in the US northeast) posted a recall notice advising its customers that two IAMS pet foods were recalled due to elevated levels of aflatoxins.

During the Thanksgiving weekend, this recall notice disappeared from the Price Chopper web site. A couple of days later, the supermarket chain posted the following statement:

“Iams has not issued a consumer recall on any products. Information which appeared here earlier referred to a few production lots which Iams has retrieved because they were outside of Iams’ specifications and did not meet their quality standards.”

When I asked IAMS for details on this recall, I received this reply:

“Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We regret the confusion. Iams has not issued a consumer recall on any of our products. We are aware the retailer posted some information which led readers to believe that Iams had issued a consumer recall. The store has since removed the information from their site.”

According to Sue Thixton (TruthAboutPetFoods.com), IAMS described their action as a “product pull” that did not require consumer notification.

Today, Procter & Gamble – owner of the IAMS brand – announced a recall of Iams ProActive Health Smart Puppy Dry Dog Food, sold in 7-lb (Code date 12784177I6), 8-lb (Code dates 12794177D2 and 12794177D3) and 17.5-lb bags (Code dates 12794177K1 and 12794177K2), due to aflatoxin levels that were above the acceptable limit. The recalled products are labeled with Use By or Expiration Dates of February 5 or February 6, 2013.

The products, according to Procter & Gamble, already have been retrieved from store shelves. They were distributed to “a limited number of retailers” in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. The list of retailers includes Walmart, Food City, Price Chopper, Big Y and Target.

Interestingly, the 12794177D3 code date included in today’s recall is identical to one of the code dates listed in Price Chopper’s original recall notice – and associated with a Cat Food.

Procter & Gamble hasn’t explained why this particular puppy food was worthy of recall, while the aflatoxin-contaminated cat food with the identical code date only rated a “product pull.” Was it pressure from FDA? Did Walmart – a retailer with enormous clout – “encourage” the company to issue a recall notice? Or did the public reaction to the initial recall/product pull flip-flop convince Procter & Gamble to go public? We’ll never know.

Whatever triggered the recall decision, I hope that Procter & Gamble now realizes that trying to conduct a stealth recall carries a significant risk to the company’s reputation once the recall is found out.

Another FDA and CooperVision Runaround

How hard is it for a company to release a complete list of lot numbers for a recalled product?

In CooperVision’s case, it’s very hard.

CooperVision’s recent expansion of its Avaira® Toric contact lens recall to include certain lots of Avaira® Sphere was accompanied by the launch of a recall site where consumers around the world could find out whether their Avaira® lenses were part of the recall. That’s fair.

But even in today’s world, many consumers, especially in less developed countries, DO NOT HAVE computers or internet access. It makes sense, therefore, for CooperVision also to publish a list of affected lot numbers. I went searching for that list, and found it on the website of Brazil’s Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (National Health Surveillance Agency).

When I randomly selected a few of the 16-digit lot numbers from that list and entered them into the CooperVision recall search engine for several different countries, I received the message “Your lenses are affected by the recall.” When I entered the same numbers into the CooperVision US recall search engine, the software cut off the last two digits of the 16-digit number and returned a message “Your lenses are not affected by the recall.”

I contacted CooperVision and requested a list of lot numbers recalled from the US market – and received the following message from Denise Powell, replying on behalf of the company:

The FDA will also be posting the lot numbers on their government site. The best thing to do is to direct consumers to the CooperVision website, http://www.coopervision.com/international-recall so they can enter in their specific lot number to see if they have lenses impacted by the recall. There is a photo illustration showing consumers where to find the lot numbers on the page.

Next, I contacted FDA spokeswoman Morgan Liscinsky, who replied with the following message:

We cannot provide advance notice of any information posted to the FDA website. You should obtain the most up-to-date list of lot numbers from CooperVision.

After this dizzying display of non-disclosure, I had a closer look at the 16-digit lot numbers and realized that the final four digits were date codes. Entering the 12-digit numbers from the Brazil list (sans date code) into the US search engine produced the message “Your lenses are affected by the recall.”

Therefore, anyone who wants to peruse what I believe to be the complete list of recalled Avaira® Sphere lots can access this list courtesy of the Brazilian government. Consumers in the USA should refer to the column heading “Packaged Lot” for the US 12-digit lot numbers. Consumers outside the USA should refer to the column heading “Captured Lot” for the international 16-digit lot numbers.

Anyone having difficulty accessing the Brazil web page is welcome to contact me directly and I’ll be happy to share a pdf file of the list by email.