Almost 27 percent of chicken samples from the Foster Farms plant in Fresno recently tested positive for Salmonella, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Although that’s more than three and half times the federal standard, it’s not high enough to prompt the USDA to ask the company to issue a voluntary recall. And until someone, besides consumer advocates, “asks” for a recall, there likely won’t be one.
USDA won’t shutter a plant or ask for a recall solely on the basis of Salmonella rates that exceed the standard (which is set for whole chickens, not parts which the Fresno plants produces) and neither will the state of California. And if no one’s asking, Foster Farms isn’t offering. In the statement posted on the company’s website this week, Foster Farms CEO Ron Foster said there hasn’t been a recall because the state of California hasn’t told them to. This, despite the fact that its chicken has been linked to two multi-state Salmonella outbreaks this year, the ongoing outbreak, which ha sickened ast least 317 people and an outbreak that ended three months ago.
While consumers advocates including Food and Water Watch and Consumers Union cry foul, Kroger grocery stores took matters into its own hands this week and removed the chicken in question from all of its store locations. Consumers shopping at other stores should not purchase or eat Foster Farms chicken marked with the establishment numbers P6137, P6137A, or P7632. More than 40 percent of those sickened in this outbreak have been hospitalized as they battle infections from Salmonella strains that are resistant to multiple antibiotics.
