Tag: Salmonella Enteritidis

Recalls and Alerts: November 13, 2012

Here is today’s list of food safety recalls, product withdrawals, allergy alerts and miscellaneous compliance issues. The live links will take you directly to the official recall notices and company news releases that contain detailed information for each recall and alert.

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For current information on retail distribution of peanut butter products recalled due to Salmonella Bredeney, please consult the Trader Joe’s/Sunland Peanut Butter Recalls tab.

For current information on retail distribution of beef products containing Canadian beef recalled due to E. coli O157:H7 contamination please consult the Canada/USA Beef Recall tab.

United States

  • FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns National Food and Beverage, Inc. (Dallas, TX) that a June 2012 inspection of the company’s facility revealed serious violations of the regulations for acidified foods.
  • FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns I. Shay Cosmetics, Inc. (Gardena, CA) that a February 2012 inspection of the company’s pharmaceutical manufacturing facility found significant violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations for Finished Pharmaceuticals.
  • FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Young Ocean, Inc. (Kent, WA) that an April-May 2012 inspection of the company’s manufacturing facility found serious violations of the seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulation and the Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulation for foods.
  • FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Greencore USA, LLC (Byfield, MA) that a June 2012 inspection of the company’s ready-to-eat sandwich manufacturing facility, located in Newburyport, MA, revealed the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in multiple areas of the production environment, including on food contact surfaces where seafood sandwiches were being prepared.
  • FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Hohberg Poultry Ranches (Ontario, CA) that  inspections carried out at the company’s shell egg production facilities in Ontario (Chino Avenue & S. Grove Avenue) and Fontana (Santa Ana Avenue) found serious violations of the Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) in Shell During Production, Storage, and Transportation regulation.

Europe

  • Allergy Alert (UK): Harrods recalls Leonidas Fresh Belgian Chocolates in Gold Paper Wrapped Box and Gold Ribbon (227g, 454g and 680g; Bset before 3 December 2012) and Leonidas Fresh Belgian Chocolates in Halloween Orange Wrapped Box, Black Ribbon and Small Plastic Pumpkin (227g and 454g; Best before 20 December 2012), because the products contain undeclared wheat (gluten), nuts, milk and egg.
  • Food Safety Recall (Germany): Deutsche See GmbH (Bremerhaven) recalls Red Snapper (from the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka), due to the presence of ciguatera toxin, a naturally occurring marine biotoxin. The company has learned of 6 to 8 illnesses that may be associated with consumption of the recalled Red Snapper.

Australia and New Zealand

  • Food Safety Recall (Australia): Goodman Fielder recalls White Wings Creamies Raspberry Jam and Whipped Cream, White Wings Creamies Whipped Passionfruit Cream, White Wings Creamies Whipped Chocolate Cream, and White Wings Creamies Lemon and Whipped Cream biscuits, because of potential foreign matter (plastic) contamination due to a packaging fault. The recalled biscuits are sold in 200g packages (tan-coloured wrapper), are identified with Best Before dates between 01/11/2012 and 29/06/2013, and were distributed nationally at Woolworths, Coles, Spar, IGA and other independent supermarkets.

Some supermarket chains post recall notices on their web sites for the convenience of customers. To see whether a recalled food was carried by your favorite supermarket, follow the live link to the supermarket’s recall web site.

*The Kroger umbrella encompasses numerous supermarket, marketplace and convenience store chains, listed on the Kroger corporate home page.
**Includes Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Dominick’s, Genuardi’s, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Carrs and Pak N’ Save.

Cargill Beef Sickens 33 People

Ground beef supplied to Hannaford Supermarkets by Cargill Meat Solutions (Wyalusing, PA) has been linked to 33 cases of Salmonella Enteritidis infections in seven states.

Earlier today, Cargill recalled 29,339 pounds of fresh ground beef products (14-lb chub packages of “Grnd Beef Fine 85/15” packed 3 chubs to approximately 42-lb cases). The recalled product was produced on May 25, 2012 and shipped to distribution centers in Connecticut, Maine and New York for further distribution.

The recalled meat was repackaged into consumer-size packages and sold under different brand names. We know so far that Hannaford, a regional supermarket chain in the US Northeast, sold the repackaged ground beef in its stores in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont.

Illnesses were reported in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia and Vermont. Investigations by federal and state health and agriculture departments were able to tie five of the illnesses to Cargill’s ground beef epidemiologically and via traceback. Onset dates for those five illnesses ranged from June 6th to June 13th; two of the five victims were hospitalized.

Although the outbreak strain has not yet been recovered from an unopened package, the Vermont Department of Health found the strain in a sample of leftover product with no packaging information, according to USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The “use by” date of the recalled ground beef has expired, however, consumers may still have some of this product in their freezers. If you purchased fresh ground beef in late May or early June from a supermarket in one of the affected states, please check your freezer for any remaining product.

Taco Bell Named In Multi-State Salmonella Outbreak

On January 19th, the US CDC reported a multi-state outbreak of 68 confirmed cases of Salmonella enteritidis gastroenteritis associated with eating food from “Restaurant A,” which the Investigation Announcement described as a Mexican-style fast food restaurant chain. Forty-three of the confirmed cases were reported by Texas, and 16 by Oklahoma. Outbreak illnesses also were reported by Kansas (2), Iowa (1), Michigan (1), Missouri (1), Nebraska (1), New Mexico (1), Ohio (1), and Tennessee (1).

Ever since the Investigation Announcement was released, CDC has ignored, dodged, and declined to answer repeated requests from the media – including an Open Letter published on eFoodAlert – to identify Restaurant A. In a recent interview with JoNel Aleccia of MSNBC, Dr. Robert Tauxe, CDC’s deputy director of the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases, explained the agency’s policy.

“The longstanding policy,” Tauxe told Aleccia, “is we publicly identify a company only when people can use that information to take specific action to protect their health. On the other hand,” he added, “if there’s not an important public health reason to use the name publicly, CDC doesn’t use the name publicly.”

Fortunately, the state of Oklahoma takes a broader view than CDC of the public’s right to know the identity of Restaurant A.

I have just learned, courtesy of the Oklahoma State Department of Health Acute Disease Service, that “Restaurant A” is Taco Bell. Following is the summary I was given of Oklahoma’s participation in the outbreak investigation.

Oklahoma State Department of Health
Acute Disease Service 

Summary of Supplemental Questionnaire Responses Specific to
Taco Bell Exposure of Oklahoma Outbreak-associated Cases
Multistate Salmonella Enteritidis Outbreak Investigation
November 2011 – January 2012 

Summary Demographic information

  • 16 cases in 5 Oklahoma counties
    • Cleveland (10), Bryan (2), Lincoln (2), Pottawatomie (1), and Greer (1)
  • Onset date range: 10/21/2011 – 11/18/2011
    • 1 onset date unknown but believes around Thanksgiving
  • Hospitalizations: 4
  • Gender distribution: 10 (63%) females and 6 (37%) males
  • Age range: 5 to 78 years (median 23 years)

Taco Bell exposure summary of Oklahoma cases from supplemental case-control questionnaire responses

  • Total Oklahoma cases: 16
  • Total interviewed: 12/16 (4 refused or were lost-to-follow-up)
  • Consumed food from Taco Bell: 8/11

CDC  reported that it was unsuccessful in determining the food source for this outbreak; however, the agency took pains to add that ground beef was an unlikely source, due to the restaurant chain’s handling and cooking processes. Patrons of the Taco Bell chain can draw some comfort from CDC’s assessment that its outlets follow appropriate handling and cooking procedures for raw ground beef.

Perhaps now that the Salmonella Enteritidis has hit the fan, CDC will deign to confirm the identity of the mysterious Restaurant A.