OFF THE WIR,FYI
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/08/19/massive-salmonella-recall-of-eggs-keeps-getting-bigger/ Massive Salmonella recall of eggs is getting bigger Mitch Lipka Aug 19th 2010 at 2:00PMText SizeAAAFiled under: Food, Recalls, Health, Consumer Ally, In the News
OFF THE WIR,FYI The egg producer at the heart of a nationwide recall of eggs that could be contaminated with Salmonella has expanded the recall to involve nearly 400 million eggs -- nearly twice the original recall.
The eggs were shipped from the farms to distributors in various parts of the country, who in turn shipped the eggs to other states under a wide variety of brands.
With the expansion of the recall, these are now the brands involved: Albertsons, Bayview, Dutch Farms, Lucerne, Farm Fresh, James Farms, Glenview, Mountain Dairy, Nulaid, Shoreland, Sunshine, Sun Valley, Ralph's, Boomsma, Lund, Kemps and Pacific Coast. The all important egg numbers and codes on this batch include Julian dates of 136-229 and now includes plant numbers 1026, 1091, 1413, 1686, 1720, 1942, 1946 and 1951. The plant number will be preceded by the letter "P" and followed by the Julian date code. The accompanying photo shows how to read the codes. Sell by dates vary.
A complete list of brands and codes can be found here.
Hundreds of people have been sickened across the country -- about 200 per week were documented in early summer through information forwarded to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but those are only the ones in which health care professionals were not only involved but also transmitted their findings.
The CDC first noticed the spike in cases of Salmonella enteritidis in May, but not until the past week did the investigation into the source lead to Wright County Egg and the subsequent recall.
This type of Salmonella can be fatal to those most vulnerable to infection: young children, the frail, elderly and those with compromised immune system. For most, the symptoms would be gastrointestinal distress and could involve a fever.
"We are undertaking this additional recall to further protect the safety of consumers - this voluntary measure is consistent with our commitment to egg safety, and it is our responsibility," Wright County Egg said in its statement.
The egg industry's Egg Safety Center, which operates the web site EggSafety.org, claims the staggering number of eggs being recalled represents only 1 percent of all eggs produced in the U.S.
