Monday, September 12, 2011

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

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Having to avoid turkey meat sounds wise. The problem is that it's also one of the cheaper meats. This will hit working families hard.