Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Cargill initiates ground turkey recall on possible Salmonella contamination

Cargill Value Added Meats Retail has announced a Class I voluntary recall of 185,000 pounds of 85-percent-lean fresh ground turkey products produced at the company’s Springdale, Ark., facility on Aug. 23, 24, 30 and 31, due to possible contamination from Salmonella heidelberg.
Cargill is initiating this recall as a result of one confirmed test sample taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a post-August 3 recall review of the processing facility, which yielded low levels of the same Salmonella heidelberg strain that appears to match the strain previously associated with human illness. "Out of an abundance of caution, we are acting quickly in response to USDA’s sample testing," said Steve Willardsen, president of Cargill’s turkey processing business. "Although there are no known illnesses associated with this positive sample, it is the same Salmonella heidelberg strain that resulted in our voluntary recall on Aug. 3, 2011. As a result of this latest USDA test result, we have suspended ground turkey production at our Arkansas facility until additional measures can be identified, approved by USDA, then implemented, which is similar to the process we previously employed when working with the agency."
A complete recall list can be found here.

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