MAYBE YOU SHOULD PASS ON THE CHICKEN LIVERS

Personally, I never trust the so-called "ready-to-eat" products of all kinds that are so popular in the food supply of industrialized nations like the U.S. If I do buy them, which I don't very often, I end up cooking them anyway. It's safer. Sometimes, ready-to-eat is not ready-to-eat.

Take the present recall of ready-to-eat broiled chicken liver products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA/FSIS) announced today that Schreiber Processing Corporation, of Maspeth, New York, is recalling an undetermined amount of broiled chicken liver products. Apparently they have been linked to a cluster of at least 169 Salmonellosis illnesses, mainly in New Jersey and New York. These livers were meant to be fully cooked. But, oops, they turned out not to be fully cooked after all. Salmonella Heidelburg - one of the worst Samonella bacteria - was found lurking in them.

The products were distributed to retail stores and institutional users in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. They were distributed in large 10lb bags, and apparently had a Meal Mart label, but who knows what label they were finally sold under, or what institutional purchasers did with them. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on the FSIS website at: www.fsis.usda.gov/FSIS_Recalls
/Open_Federal_Cases/index.asp.

By the way, my research suggests that this company also supplies airline meals. I looked at their airline menu, and it sounds a lot better than anything I eat on a plane these days. But I think I'll just pack a home-made sandwich for my next trip.

And maybe it's better just to pass on the chopped chicken livers or anything else to do with chicken livers for a while till they find and destroy all these products (that is, when they haven't already been eaten).

To your good health,

TSF

REPLAY: CARGILL TURKEY CONTAMINATED AGAIN

A particularly vicious strain of Salmonella bacteria was found in Arkansas-based Cargill Meat Solutions' ground turkey products about a month ago. This resulted in a large recall of a range of turkey products (see earlier posts). Now there is another outbreak at the same meat processing facility. It looks as though it is the same bacteria. There's also another recall of 185,000 pounds of ground turkey products by the company. Again, the turkey meat was distributed nationwide in the U.S.

The products involved include several fresh ground turkey chubs, fresh ground turkey trays, and fresh ground turkey patties, all produced at the end of August. The retail distribution list(s) will be posted on FSIS' website at www.fsis.usda.gov/FSIS_Recalls/
Open_Federal_Cases/index.asp. If you think you may have bought some, consult it.

So why is there another outbreak in meat from the same company so soon after the last one? The simple reason - the source of the contamination has not yet been identified. Yes, of course the US Department of Agriculture has done all kinds of testing, and the company has tried to clean up the facility. The usual. But obviously, they haven't succeeded. This sort of situation is not uncommon at all. It's not easy to find the culprit piece of equipment, ventilator duct, plant worker, or whatever.

If you want to be really safe, I suggest that you avoid all ground turkey products from this company for a month or two - even those that are not presently being recalled. Let's get a good "all clear" from the USDA before we go back to eating them.

To your good health,
TSF