PHILADELPHIA -- Poultry processor Pilgrim's Pride is recalling 27.4 million pounds of cooked sandwich meat after warnings of possible contamination from the listeria bacteria -- the largest meat recall in U.S. history.
The company recalled 295,000 pounds of turkey and chicken products from a suburban Philadelphia plant on Wednesday, but expanded the recall over the weekend after tests came back positive for a strain of the potentially fatal bacteria, the company said Sunday.
mindfully.org note:
Mr. Pilgrim's recalled meat would cover a football field by 11'-5"
How many people
that meat would feed?
If the grains that fed those wasted animals were fed to people instead. .
.
a substantially greater number of people would be fed, and . . .
the environment would be much healthier.
see notes below
The nationwide recall covers deli meat primarily sold under the company's Wampler Foods brand, though it is also sold under brands including Block & Barrel, Bonos, Golden Acre, Reliance and a variety of private labels. The products include turkey and poultry sold freshly sliced or made into sandwiches at deli counters and in individually sold packages of sliced deli meats. The meat was processed at the company's plant in Franconia, Pa., from May 1 through Oct. 11.
The discovery followed an investigation of a listeria outbreak in eight Northeast states since early summer that caused at least 120 illnesses and 20 deaths, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said.
"We want consumers to be aware of the recall because of the potential for foodborne illness," said Dr. Garry McKee, the inspection service's administrator.
No Wampler products have been linked to that outbreak, said David Van Hoose, Wampler's chief executive officer. The genetic strain that caused the outbreak is different from the strain found at the plant, officials said.
"We don't have any scientific evidence at this point that there is a connection, but our analysis of sampling in that plant is not complete," inspection service spokesman Steven Cohen said.
The national recall is the largest in the history of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mr. Cohen said.
Because consumers might not have access to the meat's original packaging, the best way to know if a product falls under the recall is to ask if it comes from a package that bears the plant number P-1351 inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture mark of inspection, said company spokesman Ray Atkinson. Production dates also can be found on that part of the label. The deli products were sold in retail groceries, in delicatessens and by food service distributors. Wampler officials said the recall didn't include fresh turkeys, and that it should have no effect on the holiday season. Customers are being asked to return the meats to where they were purchased for a refund.
Listeria can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea, according to the USDA. It can be fatal in young children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems, and can cause miscarriages and stillbirths.
The company said it halted all production Saturday at the Franconia plant about 25 miles north of Philadelphia so that it could be thoroughly cleaned.
Pilgrim's Pride, Pittsburg, Texas, said that the amount of product covered by the recall is about 7% of its annual turkey production and less than 1% of its total poultry production.
The company, which is the nation's second-largest poultry company behind Tyson Foods, didn't say how much revenue it would lose as a result of the shutdown, but said it believes it is adequately covered by its insurance program for the recall.
New York Stock Exchange-listed shares of Pilgrim's Pride closed Monday at $5.28, down $1.73, or 24.7%, a new 52-week low. The previous 52-week low, set last Wednesday, was $6.61, while the 52-week high, reached June 4, was $14.99.
The largest previous meat recall was in 1997, when Hudson Foods recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef after 15 people in Colorado fell ill from E. coli after eating hamburger from its plant in Columbus, Neb.
The Wampler recall comes less than three months after ConAgra Beef recalled nearly 19 million pounds of ground beef because of E. coli contamination at its plant in Greeley, Colo.
Notes:
Pilgrims Pride Meat Recall = 27.4 million pounds (546,000 cu ft)
50 pound boxed beef measures 19"x13"x14"
27.4 million pounds = 546,000 cu ft
Football Field (NCAA regulation) 300'x160' = 48,000 sq ft
546,000 cu ft / 48,000 sq ft = 11.416667' or 11'-5"
WASHINGTON -- In its hunt for the source of a listeria outbreak that has killed 20 people and sickened more than 120 others in the Northeast, federal regulators asked a poultry company to recall tainted meat even though the products couldn't be conclusively linked to the outbreak.
"There is no link between the recalled products and the listeria outbreak in Northeastern states," the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
At the USDA's request, Pilgrim's Pride Corp., Pittsburg, Texas, recalled nearly 300,000 pounds of frozen, fresh, and deli turkey meats, sold under the Wampler brand, after samples of turkey pastrami from its plant in Franconia, Pa., tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes. The USDA has a "zero tolerance" policy for listeria, a particularly dangerous bacterium that can cause high fever, severe headaches and nausea; the department asks companies to recall products whenever the pathogen is found.
The USDA found listeria as part of an exhaustive search for the source of the outbreak, which has flummoxed investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the USDA since the summer. The CDC said last week that it thought tainted deli turkey meat was the culprit. But despite testing more than nearly 400 samples from retail outlets and plants, the USDA hasn't been able to match the strain of listeria in any tainted products to the strains that have made people sick.
It is far from clear whether the Pilgrim's Pride recall closes the case. DNA fingerprint analysis hasn't linked the strain of listeria found at Pilgrim's Pride with the organism found in some victims, the agency said. But the agency is continuing to test more Pilgrim's meat.
The company stresses that the recall was "precautionary" based on a positive listeria test of a single product sample, from a single processing plant.
"Anytime there is any question about the safety of our product, we want to act responsibly," said Rick Cogdill, the chief financial officer of Pilgrim's Pride.
Government investigators worry that there could be multiple sources of the outbreak. Most of the cases have been in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, but others have been reported in Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, Ohio and Michigan.
For the past two years, the USDA has been drafting new regulations to govern listeria in meat-processing plants. The bacteria are difficult to eliminate because they can thrive even under refrigeration. While industry groups oppose regular testing of plants and products for listeria, food-safety groups have long pressed for rigorous standards. "After an outbreak this big, there is even more reason for the USDA to act," said Carol Tucker Foreman, food policy director for the Consumer Federation of America.
Pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems are particularly at risk. The pathogen can be killed by thorough cooking at 160 degrees. Health officials advised consumers to avoid uncooked hot dogs, deli meats and soft cheeses.
Cargill Inc., joining the list of meatpackers battered by food-safety mistakes, sharply expanded its recall of ground beef potentially tainted with E. coli bacteria to 2.8 million pounds.
The Agriculture Department, under pressure from Congress to crack down on meat sanitation, also took the unusual step of indirectly forcing the closely held commodity-processing company to temporarily close the Milwaukee hamburger plant linked to 57 cases of food poisoning in several Midwestern states.
The department suspended its inspection operations at the plant, which is part of the Emmpak Foods Inc. business acquired by Cargill in August 2001. By federal law, only federally inspected meat can cross state lines.
Cargill spokesman Mark Klein said it isn't clear when the Milwaukee plant, which employees 160 people, will reopen.
People familiar with the matter said the plant shutdown reflects Agriculture Department officials' concern that they didn't get enough information from Cargill when deciding the size of the initial recall -- 416,000 pounds -- announced Sept. 27.
Agency officials also are investigating whether Cargill was testing beef often enough for the pathogen. Mr. Klein said Cargill officials acted properly.
The food-poisoning outbreak was caused by O157:H7, a virulent strain of E. coli that causes bloody diarrhea and dehydration. Contamination occurs when cattle manure, which harbors E. coli, is spilled onto meat during slaughter.
Cargill, Minneapolis, owns the nation's second-biggest beef producer, behind Tyson Foods Inc.
As with most ground-beef recalls lately, the warning does little to limit the size of the outbreak. Most of the tainted meat probably has been consumed. The Agriculture Department said the beef was produced from Aug. 20 through Aug. 24.
It has been a difficult year for food safety. In July, an E. coli outbreak forced ConAgra Foods Inc. to recall 19 million pounds of ground beef produced by a Colorado meatpacking plant as far back as April.
The tardiness of the recall, the second-largest of its type in U.S. history, so embarrassed the Agriculture Department that the agency acknowledged that E. coli contamination was a bigger problem than originally thought, and promised more pressure on meatpackers to quash the pathogen.
The E. coli case at Cargill wasn't uncovered by the company or the Agriculture Department. Cargill slaughterhouses routinely screen carcasses for pathogens, and the department's inspectors randomly sample ground beef in supermarkets.
In this case, the connection was made by Minnesota and Wisconsin health officials, who detected an E. coli outbreak in early September. The meat was traced from a store to the Milwaukee plant.
That connection prompted Cargill last week to recall 416,000 pounds of ground beef made for five days in August on one production line in the Milwaukee plant. The recall is being expanded because Agriculture Department officials have discovered, among other things, that another production line in the Milwaukee plant got its beef from the same slaughterhouse.
Federal inspectors are investigating whether a separate outbreak of E. coli-related food poisoning -- which so far involves 27 people in the Midwest -- might be linked to the Milwaukee hamburger plant.
In an unrelated food-safety case, federal authorities are looking for the source of a Listeria monocytogenes outbreak. That outbreak in the Northeast has been blamed for 120 illnesses and 20 deaths. Listeria is especially dangerous to infants and the unborn. It can flourish on refrigerated products such as deli meats, hot dogs, soft cheeses, milk and seafood.
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