CONTAMINATED CHICKEN OUTBREAK

[thewayne]

There's been a salmonella outbreak suspected to originate from Foster Farms, and all of the food inspectors and outbreak detectives are currently furloughed because of the government shutdown. Avoiding Foster Farms is probably not enough since lots of off-brands are big brands with new labels. I assume that fast food chicken is probably safe for a little while, I don't know how long it takes for contamination to infiltrate that level of the restaurant industry.

..." the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the US Department of Agriculture announced that “an estimated 278 illnesses … reported in 18 states” have been caused by chicken contaminated with Salmonella Heidelberg and possibly produced by the firm Foster Farms." So it's pretty wide-spread already.

The Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Services reported:

Raw products from the facilities in question bear one of the establishment numbers inside a USDA mark of inspection or elsewhere on the package:
“P6137”
“P6137A”
“P7632”
The products were mainly distributed to retail outlets in California, Oregon and Washington State.

But since the people who do the hardcore work on tracking outbreaks are locked out of their offices, there's no telling where "mainly distributed" actually is, especially since it's hit 18 states. So, to misquote Chickfilet, Eat More Beef.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/shutdown-salmonella/

Comments

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

I'd avoid eating any meat for a while.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Everyone talks about safe handling procedures and cooking to 165f, but I'm still paranoid, especially after reading a story on NPR this morning. Says that this particular outbreak is proving to be antibiotic resistant, which means hospital stays, which means higher risk of contracting a MRSA infection. This is particularly bad for people like me who are immunodeficient.

[silveradept]

Wonderful. We use those kinds of chicken things to feed animals. We'll have to be careful.