Food giant Cargill Inc. has launched a recall of more than 36 million pounds of fresh and frozen ground turkey, one of the nation’s biggest meat recalls ever, because of the possibility of salmonella contamination.
As the Los Angeles Times reports, health authorities believe the poultry could be contaminated with Salmonella Heidelberg. That strain of salmonella, authorities say, killed a California man and has sickened at least 79 others in 26 states since March.
Cargill said the ground turkey, much of it sold as the Honeysuckle White brand, was produced at the company’s Springdale, Ark., plant sometime between Feb. 20 and Aug. 2. The company said it issued the recall following an internal probe and reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture of illnesses from Salmonella Heidelberg.
What remains unclear, as The New York Times points out, is why it took government officials five months to identify the outbreak and its source and to notify the public.
Production at Cargill’s Springdale plant has been suspended and will not resume until the source can be pinpointed, said Steve Willardsen, president of Cargill’s turkey processing business, in a statement on the company’s website.
Cargill owns four turkey-processing plants in the U.S., and the recall does not involve any products from the other three, the company said.
As recently as Tuesday, the Agriculture Department said that it did not have evidence that conclusively linked any particular plant to the outbreak. But the department now says an investigation “determined that there is a link” between the Cargill ground turkey and the salmonella outbreak. The recalled products have the number P-963 inside the USDA inspection mark.
Salmonella Heidelberg is resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics and is often difficult to treat. Salmonella typically causes fever, diarrhea and abdominal pain. But it occasionally is fatal, and is a particular threat to young children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.
Federal authorities have reported that 22 people nationwide have been hospitalized, with victims ranging from infancy to age 88.
Salmonella is killed by cooking. Public health officials say ground poultry should be heated to 165 degrees, as measured by a meat thermometer.
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