Garden Fresh Foods Expands September Recall
By Sam Lewis
More ready-to-eat chicken and ham may be contaminated with Listeriosis-causing bacteria
Milwaukee’s Garden Fresh Foods has added another nearly 6,700 pounds of its ready-to-eat chicken and ham products to its Sept 25 recall. As it currently stands, the company has recalled 25,748 pounds of meat products due to potential contamination of Listeria monocytogenes, a bacteria causing food poisoning.
A list of the chicken and ham products in question can be found here. The page contains both originally recalled items, along with the Thursday, Oct 17 additions. The additional recall has also been given a Class I risk, meaning customers who eat this product are likely to become very sick. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will post a list of retail outlets where the products were sold as it become available.
According to FSIS, the products being recalled have the establishment number “EST 17256” or “Est. P-17256” within the USDA inspection mark. The products included in the expanded recall were produced between Oct 10 and Oct 15 and were distributed to food retailers and grocers throughout the country. Following the Sept 25 recall, Garden Fresh underwent a food safety assessment performed by FSIS. The findings of that evaluation included additional contamination via microbial testing. To date, the products of both recalls have not yet been connected to any cases of Listeria. After a recall is made, FSIS conducts effectiveness checks to make sure the items are no longer on shelves at retail locations, and retailers notify customers of the recall.
FSIS recommends consumers who believe they are at risk of Listeriosis should wash their hands before and after handling raw meat and poultry. Cutting boards, dishes, and utensils should also be cleaned before and after use. Other safety measures include keeping raw food separate from cooked food, not consuming unpasteurized milk, and avoiding products with it in them. Finally, avoid eating salads with meat in them (ham salad, chick salad, tuna salad, and seafood salad) along with egg salad.
Upcoming Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) guidelines aim to improve traceability and speed the process of recalling contaminated products. If all goes according to plan, these new rules should be finalized by summer 2015. FSIS is now working at full-strength, as the two-week government shutdown forced federal agencies to work in a limited capacity. Now that the furlough has ended, American consumers can breathe a little easier knowing full functionality of the government’s food safety staff has returned.