Foster Farms chicken has been linked to two Salmonella outbreaks this year. But the company’s history with the pathogen stretches back more than a decade. When, earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that Foster Farms was, again, the source of a multi-state Salmonella outbreak, the company took a similar approach it used the first time. Instead of a recall, it issued a statement saying Salmonella was commonly found on poultry and consumers should take care when they handle and cook it. It’s true that Salmonella is commonly found on poultry and that consumers should take care when handling and preparing it, or any other raw food. It’s also true that companies should take care to produce food that doesn’t make people sick. But that wasn’t the case at … [Read more...]
Should Salmonella Victims Sue Foster Farms for Outbreak Linked to Chicken?
The hundreds of Salmonella victims sickened by Foster Farms chicken should not be left to bear the financial responsibility of the outbreak. The company allegedly produced chicken contaminated with antibiotic-strains of Salmonella Heidelberg. People who were sickened after eating this chicken have to pay medical bills incurred because of their illness. There may be good evidence linking the Salmonella Heidelberg infections to Foster Farms chicken. The epidemiologic evidence is persuasive. When health officials interviewed 132 people sickened in the outbreak, 105 of them (80%) reported eating chicken prepared at home in the week before becoming ill, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of the 61 people in this group that had brand information, 48 (79%) … [Read more...]
Food & Water Watch on Foster Farms Salmonella Outbreak
Food & Water Watch has released a statement about the USDA's failure to prevent the Foster Farms Salmonella outbreak. Almost 300 people in 17 states have been sickened so far. They say that this outbreak goes beyond the government shutdown crisis. And this outbreak is especially troubling because the hospitalization rate for those sickened is twice the normal rate, and some of the Salmonella Heidelberg strains are antibiotic resistant. The agency is concerned because first, it took the CDC seven months to discover that poultry from three Foster Farms facilities were causing this outbreak. And that investigation was interrupted by the government shutdown when most foodborne illness analysts were furloughed. In addition, no recalls have been issued, even though it is almost certain … [Read more...]
USDA Threatens to Shut Down Foster Farms Facilities
The USDA has sent a letter to Foster Farms, threatening to shut down three of the company's facilities if significant corrective changes aren't made by Thursday, October 10, 2013. The company's products are associated with a Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak, the second this year, that has sickened at least 278 people in 17 states. The letter states, "This letter serves as an official notification by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), Alameda District, of the intent to withhold the marks of inspection and suspend the assignment of inspectors for the Slaughter, Raw Intact and Raw Non Intact processes at your establishment. This action is based on your establishment's failure to operate in a manner that is consistent with the requirements of the Hazard Analysis and Critical … [Read more...]
Food Processors, Food Safety, the Law, and Common Sense
After the announcement of the Foster Farms raw chicken Salmonella outbreak, we realized there is a lot of misinformation out there about what contamination of food by pathogenic bacteria really means, both physically and legally. Reading comments on some other news stories really brought this point home. Most people do not understand why food safety experts and the law stress that food processors must produce safe food. The law states that companies are not allowed to sell food contaminated with enough bacteria to make someone sick. In addition, there is zero tolerance for several bacteria in certain foods: E. coli O157:H7 in beef; Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods, and Salmonella in ready-to-eat foods. The government has also classified six other STEC (shiga toxin-producing … [Read more...]
Foster Farms Drug-Resistant Salmonella Hospitalizes 76 Says CDC
The Foster Farms Salmonella outbreak has sickened 278 people in 17 states and hospitalized 76 of them, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) whose shutdown-induced skeleton crew weighed in on the outbreak yesterday. Lab tests have identified seven strains of the bacteria involved in the outbreak, four are rare, three are common and four are resistant to multiple drugs. One of them is a genetic match to the strain associated with the Foster Farms Salmonella outbreak earlier this year. Washington State Public Health Laboratories identified one of the outbreak strains in a leftover intact sample of raw Foster Farms chicken that was collected from an ill person's home in Washington. The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) retail meat … [Read more...]
Questions About Foster Farms Chicken Salmonella Outbreak
Earlier this year, there were a few vague announcements about a Salmonella outbreak associated with Foster Farms chicken. In March, the CDC announced an outbreak that sickened at least 128 people in 13 states. Most of the ill persons lived on the West coast, but there were people sick on the East coast as well. At the time, the report stated that "Foster Farms brand chicken was the most likely source of the infections." There was no recall, either from the company or from the USDA. The outbreak strain of Salmonella Heidelberg was found in four intact samples of Foster Farms chicken taken from the homes of three patients. That announcement said that "an investigation by USDA-FSIS is ongoing." A final report was issued on July 12, 2013, in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and … [Read more...]
Foster Farms Salmonella Outbreak But No Recall, Again
A Salmonella outbreak has, again, been linked to Foster Farms chicken. And, again, there is no recall. Yesterday, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) issued a public health alert for raw chicken produced at three of the company's facilities in California that has been linked to 278 illnesses in 18 sates. It was February when the Oregon Health Authority announced a Salmonella outbreak linked to chicken produced in the company's slaughterhouse's outside of California and July when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a final report saying the outbreak appeared to be over after sickening 134 people in 13 states, hospitalizing 33 of them. During the five-month-long investigation of the first outbreak, the company never issued a recall. … [Read more...]
Second Foster Farms Chicken Salmonella Outbreak in 15 Months
The large West Coast Salmonella outbreak associated with Foster Farms Chicken -- announced on Monday -- is the second big set of Salmonella poisonings associated with the brand in 15 months. The first outbreak, which began June 1, 2012, sickened 132 people in 13 states, according to the "final update'' provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in July of this year. That one was centered heavily in the Pacific Northwest: Washington, 57 cases; Oregon, 40; Alaska, 13; and California, 11, according to the CDC's Morbitity and Mortality Weekly Report dated July 12, 2013. Three months later, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service is issuing a public health alert warning the public that raw Foster Farms chicken from three plants is associated with 278 illnesses in … [Read more...]
Salmonella Outbreak Associated with Foster Farms Chicken
The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is issuing a public health alert because of concerns that 278 illnesses caused by Salmonella Heidelberg are associated with raw chicken products produced by Foster Farms at three facilities in California. FSIS can't link the illnesses to a specific product and production period. Raw products from the facilities in question have one of these establishment numbers, either inside a USDA mark of inspection or elsewhere on the package: "P6137", "P6137A" or "P7632". The products were mainly distributed to retail outlets in California, Oregon, and Washington State. The 278 ill persons live in 18 states; most live in California. The outbreak is continuing. Illnesses were linked to Foster Farms brand chicken through epidemiologic, … [Read more...]
