Death, illnesses from salmonella, but no recall

You think the way the pet food industry and FDA handle pet food recalls stinks? Take a walk on the human side, where the Centers for Disease Control have been investigating ground turkey contaminated with salmonella that has caused one death and at least 76 illnesses in 26 states since March, and the government agency still hasn't announced a recall nor identified the producer of the contaminated food.

From the Associated Press:

The illnesses date back to March, and the CDC said Monday that cultures of ground turkey from four retail locations between March 7 and June 27 showed salmonella contamination. The agency said preliminary information showed that three of the samples have been linked to the same production establishment but did not name the retailers or the manufacturers.

The Agriculture Department oversees meat safety and would be the agency to announce a recall. The department sent out an alert about the illnesses late last week telling consumers to properly cook their turkey, which can decrease the chances of salmonella poisoning. But the department has not given consumers any further warnings about the source of the tainted meat.

The USDA has not responded to requests for comment on why there has not been a recall. The CDC said it and the USDA were "vigorously working to identify the specific contaminated product or products that are causing illnesses and will update the public on the progress of this investigation as information becomes available."

Food safety advocate Bill Marler, an attorney who has represented victims of the nation's biggest food-borne illness outbreaks, said he believes the three positive samples should prompt a recall.

"Consumers have no idea what to do except not eat ground turkey," he said.

Remember during the 2007 pet food recall when we kept saying, "If this was people food, you'd be doing a better job?" Not so much.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[YesBiscuit!]

Well rats. I just bought 3 pounds of ground turkey yesterday on markdown b/c it's about to go out of date. But now I'm thinking it's super extry salmonella-y.

[Alyssa Steffes]

This is the kind of thing that pushes me more and more towards vegetarianism.

[Sally]

Crap! My cats eat ground turkey all the time!

[K.B.]

"This is the kind of thing that pushes me more and more towards vegetarianism."



So you can get your daily E. coli dose from sprouts/lettuce/cucumbers/peppers/etc. instead?



This is the sort of thing that should push you towards finding a sustainable, safe food supply.



This is the sort of this that should push ALL of us to take control of our food supply.



This is the sort of thing that should make all of us write our elected representatives, and insist on changes - changes that reflect science, not politics.

[Alyssa Steffes]

By my comment that's what I meant. Not only sustainable and safe but healthier food supply.



I agree with you though, more should be done to change problems like this.

[Eucritta]

Word is now that the death was in Sacramento. Still no company named, and no recall issued.

[Tina Clark]

"So you can get your daily E. coli dose from sprouts/lettuce/cucumbers/peppers/etc. instead?"



Pretty much all e. coli in vegetables originates in runoff from animal farming.

[Jennifer Blair]

How many people need to die from Salmonella poisoning before the government decides to take action??? This is utterly outrageous! Same thing with the quality of chicken farms for raising eggs - the government has to see an exponential repeated string of instances before they even waste their time (and money they don't have) to protect consumers.

Thanks for the great informative article!

[Christie Keith]

Pat, that link just keeps bouncing me to the NYT front page, and a search for "Cargill" returns nothing about FDA. What is the article about?

[The OTHER Pat]

FDA talks to Cargill



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/business/turkey-plant-may-be-link-to-salmonella-cases.html

[Dori Gehling]

Pathetic! Like our legislators, it seems the FDA and CDC are more interested in protecting the reputations of big business than the best interests of humans or pets.

[Eucritta]

Try this one, from Bill Marler:



http://www.marlerblog.com/legal-cases/so-whose-turkey-burgers-tainted-with-salmonella-are-they/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MarlerBlog+%28Marler+Blog%29

[The OTHER Pat]

It's pretty close to what Eucritta posted. Here are a couple of paragraphs from the NYT article:



However, the meat processor Cargill said that it had been contacted by the Agriculture Department and asked to provide information as part of the salmonella investigation.



"We are cooperating with the agency’s ongoing investigation into the source of the illnesses," Mike Martin, a Cargill spokesman, said in an e-mail message. Food safety advocates said the outbreak was particularly alarming because it involved a strain of salmonella that is resistant to antibiotics. Salmonella illnesses can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever. Many cases do not require treatment with antibiotics, but resistance to the drugs can make severe cases more difficult to treat.



Here's the Google search I did:



http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=bvie&xhr=t&q=cargill+ground+turkey+salmonella&cp=32&pf=p&sclient=psy&source=hp&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=cargill+ground+turkey+salmonella&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=66210211ab564913&biw=1067&bih=455

[The OTHER Pat]

It STILL comes down to a sustainable, safe food supply.

[Eucritta]

Just in: Cargill has issued recall:



http://www.marlerblog.com/cargill-to-recall-35709675-pounds-of-fresh-ground-turkey-due-to-salmonella-heidelberg-risk/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MarlerBlog+%28Marler+Blog%29

[Eucritta]

Cargill's release on it:



http://www.cargill.com/turkey-recall/

[Eucritta]

The Cargill page is overloaded, so here's a blog which copied the product info:



http://efoodalert.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/cargill-recalls-36-million-pounds-of-ground-turkey/

[Gina Spadafori]

Cargill. Wow, what a surprise.



I heard a public health official carrying on today about the importance of cooking meat to ashes to kill the nasties allowed into these products by the industrial ad system. She said it had to be done as a precaution against illness all the time.



To me, this is the same as if she said we had to boil our tap water as a precaution against illness all the time.



We boil our tap water during a disaster, or if something temporarily breaks down at the municipal water-treatment plant. Otherwise, we have a system that ensures potable water for drinking and cooking.



If we had to boil our water before using as matter of course, we would be screaming about the breakdown of the public safety and regulatory system.



So why aren't we now about industrial agriculture?

[MichelleB]

"The recall primarily affects several varieties of Cargill's Honeysuckle White ground turkey that the company produced in Springdale, Ark., between Feb. 20 and this week." --Star Tribune, August 4, 2011



"We go to great lengths to ensure the food we produce is safe and we fully understand that people expect to be able to consume safe food, each serving, every time." - Cargill's ground turkey recall webpage.



It takes a week, maybe two, to get results from a salmonella culture test, assuming you are using a 3rd party offsite lab.

[Karen N]

Cargill is set to recall 36 million pounds of fresh and frozen ground turkey because meat may be contaminated with salmonella. (Aug. 4th Wall Street Journal page A2)

[The OTHER Pat]

Here's an interesting perspective that is mentioned in passing in any number of articles but that I found one of the more in-depth discussions of at http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/usda-criticized-for-ground-turkey-response/ :



USDA only recalls products contaminated with antibiotic-resistant Salmonella after those products have been definitively tied to illnesses.



This is because Salmonella is not classified as an "adulterant". Therefore, recalls are not mandated until someone dies or becomes ill. From another part of the article:



In May, CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) petitioned USDA to declare antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg, Salmonella Newport, Salmonella Hadar, and Salmonella Typhimurium "adulterants" under federal law, making products that contain them illegal to sell.



I find this interesting. I agree that trying to classify ALL Salmonella as "adulterants" would be problematic. But focussing in on the specific strains that have been shown to pose the greatest threat to human health is certainly a defensible idea.

[c weaver]

I am really sad and now very upset!! I had to put my little chihuahua to sleep yesterday (8/4). I bought this turkey on Tues. 8/2 He ate some of this on Tuesday and threw it up....I had no idea about this turkey recall. I did cook it thoroughly but he only weighed 4.5 lbs. I wonder if this caused his death?

[Toby Jon]

Ugh..so glad I don't eat turkey (don't really like it). On the news they said that 36 mil lbs were recalled but didn't say what brands were affected, of course...