Food Contamination and Poisoning

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      Boar’s Head Recalls 7 Million More Pounds of Meat Amid Listeria Outbreak

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      The announcement came less than a week after Boar’s Head recalled more than 200,000 pounds of meat during an outbreak that has killed two and sickened more than two dozen.Boar’s Head recalled seven million additional pounds of deli meat on Tuesday, expanding a recall of more than 200,000 pounds after its product was linked on Monday to a listeria outbreak that has left two people dead and sickened nearly three dozen.The expanded recall includes all meats and poultry processed at a Boar’s Head facility in Jarratt, Va. The decision to broaden the recall came after the company learned from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that a sample of its liverwurst from a Maryland store that had tested positive for listeria bacteria had matched the strain in the nationwide outbreak.“Based on this new information, we took steps to ensure we are doing everything possible to protect public health,” Boar’s Head said in a statement on its website on Tuesday. The company added that it had suspended operations involving ready-to-eat meats at the Jarratt facility until further notice.The company announced its initial recall on July 25, calling back all products that had been processed on the same production line and on the same day, June 27, as the contaminated liverwurst. That recall amounted to 207, 528 pounds of meat comprising 10 different products sliced at deli counters and sold in retail stores.Now, the recall covers every item produced at the Virginia facility, a sweeping list of 71 products bearing the Boar’s Head and Old Country brand names produced from May 10 through July 29, the U.S.D.A.’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said.The list of products includes multipound loaves of “Strassburger Brand Liverwurst MADE IN VIRGINIA” with sell-by dates ranging from July 25 to Aug. 30 and meats made for slicing at delis with an Aug. 10 sell-by date. Some of those meats include: Virginia ham, Italian Cappy Ham, Extra Hot Italian Cappy Ham, Pork & Beef Bologna, Beef Salami, Beef Bologna and Garlic Bologna.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How E. Coli in Food Makes People Sick

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      The bacteria sickens an estimated 265,000 Americans each year.Last week, federal officials announced recalls of ground beef and organic walnuts because they were potentially contaminated with E. coli bacteria that can make people sick.The recalls involve more than 16,000 pounds of ground beef distributed by Cargill Meat Solutions and sold at Wal-Mart stores in 11 states, as well as organic shelled walnuts sold in bulk in natural food and co-op stores in 19 states. So far, the recalled walnuts have been associated with 12 illnesses, including seven hospitalizations, in Washington State and California.No illnesses have been reported from the ground beef recall, although ground beef remains one of the most common sources of illnesses from these bacteria, which are responsible for an estimated 265,000 illnesses annually. Most of these, however, are not diagnosed or tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because people often recover on their own without visiting a doctor, said Matthew Wise, chief of the C.D.C.’s Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch.Here’s what you need to know about E. coli to stay safe.Where You’ll Find the BacteriaThere are many different kinds of E. coli, and most of them are harmless to humans, said microbiologist Edward G. Dudley, director of the E. Coli Reference Center at Pennsylvania State University.Some types do, however, make people sick, he said. Those that most commonly cause illness in humans, known as Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, primarily reside in cow intestines, which is why they often contaminate ground beef. The E. coli implicated in the ongoing walnut and ground beef recalls are a type of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli.Because these bacteria eventually work their way out of animal intestines and into feces, they can also contaminate farm soil, which is why E. coli outbreaks are also often tied to produce, Dr. Dudley explained. They can also contaminate ponds, lakes and rivers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      One in Five Milk Samples Nationwide Shows Genetic Traces of Bird Flu

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      There is no evidence that the milk is unsafe to drink, scientists say. But the survey result strongly hints that the outbreak may be widespread.Federal regulators have discovered fragments of bird flu virus in roughly 20 percent of retail milk samples tested in a nationally representative study, the Food and Drug Administration said in an online update on Thursday.Samples from parts of the country that are known to have dairy herds infected with the virus were more likely to test positive, the agency said. Regulators said that there is no evidence that this milk poses a danger to consumers or that live virus is present in the milk on store shelves, an assessment public health experts have agreed with.But finding traces of the virus in such a high share of samples from around the country is the strongest signal yet that the bird flu outbreak in dairy cows is more extensive than the official tally of 33 infected herds across eight states.“It suggests that there is a whole lot of this virus out there,” said Richard Webby, a virologist and influenza expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.Dr. Webby said that he believed it was still possible to eradicate the virus, which is known as H5N1, from the nation’s dairy farms. But it will be difficult to design effective control measures without knowing the scope of the outbreak, he said.The findings also raise questions about how the virus has evaded detection and where else it might be silently spreading. Some scientists have criticized the federal testing strategy as too limited to reveal the true extent of viral spread.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More