October 16, 2007 · Uncategorized

Columnist Brody writes that there is good news about the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, a potentially deadly source of food poisoning. Since federal food safety officials threatened in 2002 to toughen the rules to reduce listeria infections by 50 percent, things have definitely improved. In the effort’s first year, the recalls because of listeria contamination dropped, to 14 from 40, and the volume of recalled products fell, to 55,000 pounds from 32 million.
But the situation is still far from good enough, as these recent recalls demonstrate:
*2,768 pounds of ready-to-eat chicken products in Tennessee
*45,500 pounds of onions in California
*Smoked salmon and cheese spread in Georgia
*Diced onions sold at Trader Joe’s
*Raw milk in Pennsylvania
*Sprouts in Minnesota
*7,000 pounds of ready-to-eat turkey products in California
*10,000 cases of fresh sliced mushrooms from Pennsylvania
*47,000 pounds of fully cooked ham and turkey products from Ohio
Listeriosis, as the disease is called, is not nearly as common a cause of [...]


MORE:
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/news/fsnews.cfm?newsid=21938

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