The Imported Canadian Cheese Recall Spreads in the U.S.

Now we have an expanding cheese recall in Massachussetts, U.S.A. It is linked to the earlier Cedar Market (located in Norwood, MA)recall. This market imported Canadian cheese and on-sold it to Bahnan’s located in Worcester, MA. Since this cheese has turned out to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria, Bahnan's is also having to issue a recall. As a result a much wider range of cheese products with the brand name "Fromagerie Marie Kade” are being considered dangerous and should not be eaten. All have the establishment number 1874, but different "best by" dates.

Akawi Cheese Best Before 08 MAR 2012
Baladi Cheese Best Before 08 FEB 2012.
Shinglish Cheese Best Before 07 NOV 2012
Tresse Cheese Best Before 10 NOV 2012
Vachekaval Cheese Best Before 10 MAR 2012
Halloom Best Before 01 MAY 2012
Moujadale Best Before 04 MAY 2012

Our food certainly travels around these days. And so do the contaminants.

Stay tuned..

To your good health,

TSF

ANOTHER "CEDAR" CHEESE RECALL

Green Cedar Dairy of Dearborn, Michigan, has now announced the recall of their All Natural Ackawi Cheese and All Natural Chives Cheese with a sell by date up to July 1, 2012. The reason: they may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria and at least two illnesses have been linked to eating these cheeses.

The products were distributed to bakeries and retail stores in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties of Michigan. In other words, a relatively small geographic area.

What puzzles me is that both this cheese and the Canadian cheese recall I blogged yesterday (see previous post) do not only have Listeriosis risk in common - which is nothing unusual - but also something else. They both have "cedar" in the name and a green cedar tree on the label. The trees look somewhat different (the Canadian cheese package has a more artistic cedar tree) but there they are. What an odd coincidence.

Ah - the mysteries of our food supply.

To your good health,

TSF

Canadian Cheese Recalled in the U.S.

Just a little over a year ago, my post of 12/22/10 was titled "Is Cheese our most Dangerous Food?" Compared to 2010, and particularly the last six months of that year, 2011 has not been such a bad one for cheese recalls in the U.S. But all the same, we have had quite a few. Most of them, as usual, were due to Listeria monocytogenes bacteria turning up in the cheese. And, as usual, raw cheeses proved to be the riskiest.

Over the holiday period we had another cheese recall. Kradjian Imp Co, Glendale, CA is recalling 231 Cases, 22Lb / Cs of Cedar brand Tresse Cheese, 16 oz and Cedar brand Shinglish cheese, 16 oz because of Listeria monocytogenes.

These two cheeses were imported by Kradjian from Canada from a supplier named Fromagerie Marie Kade of Quebec. The cheeses were made with pasteurized milk - not raw milk this time.

Check your cheeses especially if you live in Southern California and tend to shop at Mediterranean speciality markets. Both cheeses are vacuum packed and bear the picture of a green cedar tree (see illustration).

Again - a special caution for pregnant women and anyone else with a seriously weakened immune system. This bacteria has a high fatality rate.

To your good health,

TSF

update 1/22/12: This outbreak is still very much ongoing and expanding. The geographic area has also expanded to include: Southern California, Northern California, Washington State, Minnesota, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee,Arizona and Michigan.

UPDATE ON ENFAMIL BABY FORMULA

Mead Johnson Nutrition Co., which manufactures Enfamil Premium Newborn infant formula, is publicly stressing that the company's laboratory testing has found no trace of Cronobacter sakazakii - the bacteria that caused the death of a baby in Missouri, USA, and tanked the company's stock price last week.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Missouri Department of Health are doing their own testing of formula samples. Federal officials said that these test results won't be available until later this week. Either the government testing is more thorough than that of Mead Johnson (although the company says it has used the same methology), probably meaning they are giving the bacteria plenty of time to grow in artificial media, or, it could simply mean that staff went on holiday leave and simply weren't available to push this urgent testing through.

In the meantime, National retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Walgreen Co., Kroger Co. and Safeway Inc. have pulled the powdered infant formula from their shelves. Consumers would be wise to avoid this product until testing is complete. Newborns are too vulnerable to take any risks.

To your good health,

TSF

E.coli 0157 Found in Fresh Spinach

Avon Heights Fresh is recalling certain packages of fresh packaged spinach. The brands include Krisp Pak 10oz bags, Better Brand 10oz.bags, and Avon Heights 4-2.51b bags. Yes, here we go with another bagged fresh produce recall.

What happened is that during routine sampling for the commonly occurring bacteria in food, one package of Better Brand 10oz spinach tested positive for E.coli 0157 - a very dangerous bacteria.

The company has decided to be careful and recall all the packages of spinach that were produced at their plant on that particular day. This privately owned company prides itself on the safety of its products, but unfortunately, such problems can happen in spite of safety measures. Here's a quote from their website (www.avonheightsfresh.com):

We pride ourselves on keeping our facilities clean and efficient - food safety is one of the foremost cornerstones of the Avon Heights Fresh brand, and we work hard to make sure that our customers are taking only the healthiest, safest product possible into their kitchens.

All the packages have codes DP 340 and T691 and a "best if used by" date of December 16 - that is, over a week ago. What this means is that most of it has been already eaten. Nothing new there. Unfortunately, food recalls often come too late to do us poor consumers much good.

Don't panic if you think you ate some of the recalled product. It is very unlikely that every package would be contaminated. But if you do get food poisoning symptoms (incubation period is 3-9 days), or, already have them, be sure to tell your doctor about eating this product.

To your good health,

TSF

MORE RECENT CASES OF SALMONELLA BACTERIA IN FOOD AND SUPPLEMENTS

In the last few days, Salmonella bacteria seem to be making up for lost time. Or else, food testing has just got lucky and caught more cases. I won't have time to blog them all, but here are some U.S. instances from the past few days, and one from the U.K.

These cases show the variety of situations in which Salmonella can crop up. The first two - peppers and alfalfa sprouts are quite common, and have occurred previously many times. The last two - in spice and in dietary supplements - are rarer but not unheard of either, as this bacterium is very good at surviving under dry conditions, and can do so for months. There have been several large spice recalls in the U.S. over the last few years, and of course, the very recent one in celery seeds (see earlier posts).

In peppers: Cal Fresco, LLC (“Cal Fresco”) of California is recalling some 18,500 pounds of fresh Jalapeño and Serrano chili peppers (imported from Mexico, by the way) because of contamination with Salmonella. They were shipped in cases under both the Cal Fresco (10 and 25 pound cases) and Grower Alliance (40 pound case) labels. This lot was distributed to retail stores within California, Oregon, Washington, Texas and Canada between December 3 and December 5, 2011 (I bought some, but luckily cooked them well).

In alfalfa sprouts: Green Valley Food Corp. of is recalling 650 cases of “Let’s Grow Healthy Together!” Alfalfa Sprouts 5 oz. containers, because the results showed to be contaminated with Salmonella. If you read this blog regularly you'll know that I view sprouted seeds as one of the riskiest foods you can eat (see previous posts).

In dietary supplements: Eclectic Institute, Sandy, Oregon is recalling specific lots of its freeze-dried capsules containing Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica) and Bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosus) capsules because of potential Salmonella contamination.

In dry spices: In the U.K. the Food Standards agency reports that Natco Foods Ltd. is recalling certain batches of its own ground cumin due to the presence of Salmonella bacteria.

To your good health,

TSF

Cargill is Back Producing Ground Turkey

This post may interest those consumers who want to know more about what happens after a large food product recall in the U.S.

If the inspectors find contamination in the processing plant, and large amounts of product have to be recalled, it can mean the end of a small company. Larger ones can usually weather the storm - and the expense and negative publicity involved. Part of that expense is cleanup of the plant, as required by government regulators. Production of the recalled product, and sometimes of others as well, will have to be stopped until food safety is improved.

Cargill (Cargill Meat Solutions Corp.) provides an example. In August and September of this year (end of the summer, 2011) this huge company had a large ground turkey recall because of Salmonella contamination. The turkey had been processed at their Springdale, Arkansas facility. Several brands were affected: including Honeysuckle White, Shady Brook Farms, Riverside, Aldi Fit & Active, Giant Eagle, HEB, Kroger and Safeway.

After discovery of Salmonella at the plant, ground turkey production was suspended (another one in Virginia kept making it). Over the next few months, the company undertook a thorough cleanup and set up new and better quality and testing standards, including:

• Addition of more bacteria reduction steps, including before the turkey is ground.
• Improvement of the process control monitoring system
• Increase of the number and frequency of tests for Salmonella.
• Establishment of high pressure processing, to further reduce numbers of Salmonella.
• Training of workers in the new procedures.

Cargill now says that their new safety measures at the Springdale plant are the best in the industry. Cargill food safety specialists and USDA inspectors are also reportedly present for each and every shift at the plant.

So why didn't they have these measures before the outbreak which would have avoided a lot of misery to consumers - and, to the company? You know the answer: they cost money.

Cargill expects their turkey to be back in the stores soon. And, my guess is that at least part of the cost of increased safety will be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices.

To your good health,

TSF