Salmonella cases: Half still come from
crackers
Source of Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29619415/ Recalled
foods continue to sicken consumers, worried health officials say
By JoNel Aleccia Health writer msnbc.com Fri.,
March. 13, 2009
Bill
Rector of Blaine, Wash., didn’t know about a nationwide recall of peanut
butter products until he and his 3-year-old daughter already had been
hospitalized with salmonella poisoning. “That's
the first we heard of it,” he said. But that was back
in January, when the 32-year-old meat cutter said he and his toddler were
sickened by Austin Quality Foods crackers linked to a still-widening food
poisoning outbreak. Since then, word has spread, he said. Or
so you’d think. Nearly
two months after the initial recalls, and despite massive publicity about the
salmonella scare linked to faulty practices at a Georgia peanut processing
plant, federal health officials are worried that some consumers still haven’t
gotten the message. Half of new cases tied to crackers That
includes illnesses that began as recently as Feb. 13, long after retailers
and health officials thought they’d issued adequate warnings. “That’s
somebody who got sick even after the news got out,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe,
chief of the CDC’s foodborne disease program. “Not everybody gets the message
— and not everybody acts on it.” The
crackers are only a fraction of more than 3,400 products recalled for fear of
contamination linked to food processing plants run by the now-bankrupt Peanut
Corp. of America. Still, they account for the largest share of the food
poisoning cases that have sickened 684 people in 46 states and Canada and
contributed to nine deaths. That’s
likely because it appears that the most virulent doses of salmonella bacteria
showed up in the Austin and Keebler crackers and in King Nut brand peanut
butter that went to certain health care facilities, said Ernest Julian, who
heads an industry workgroup for the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak
Response. "The
biggest slug of contamination was associated with those products," he
said. But
part of the problem also may be that many of the recalled foods can last a
while and families might not have checked their cupboards, Tauxe said. A
memo to military families from Kellogg’s pegs the shelf life of the Austin
Toasty Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers and Cheese and Peanut Butter Sandwich
Crackers Crackers at 240 days, with a product safety guideline that extends
to 450 days. “I’m
worried that they still have them,” Tauxe said. Massive recalls sparking ‘mass confusion’ “It’s
creating mass confusion in the food industry,” Julian said. “How do you tell
the good stuff from the bad stuff?” Spot-checks
of retailers suggest that some stores may not have pulled all recalled
products, or that they may have put new shipments of food on shelves, even
though the new products also were included in the recall, Julian said. A
spokeswoman for Kellogg’s said the firm was the first to recall products and
that it has aggressively worked with its employees and a third-party vendor
to warn consumers about the problem and to remove potentially tainted foods
from public reach. “The
vast majority of Austin and Keebler peanut butter crackers are now off
shelf,” Kris Charles, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. The
federal Food and Drug Administration requests, but does not require, proof
that recalled products have been destroyed, a spokesman said. Currently,
there is no system to monitor recalls, Julian noted. Retailers
and health officials are continuing to urge consumers to check
the FDA’s recall list frequently and to avoid the products identified.
Salmonella infections are usually mild, but they can be severe and, in some
cases, life threatening. Bill for salmonella treatment? $30,000 Salmonella poisoning linked to the outbreak
was confirmed in Payton, who had to be hospitalized for days. Bill Rector’s
illness was suspected, but not confirmed, he said. Bills for their care have
totaled more than $30,000, Rector said, with about $6,000 not covered by
health insurance. Because
Rector works with food, he also lost two weeks of work until state health
officials cleared him to return. Rector
and his wife, Shannon, 29, have sought the services of Bill Marler, a Seattle
lawyer who specializes in food safety cases. They hope to recover the costs
of medical expenses. “It’s
pretty scary,” said Rector. “I wasn’t worried for myself as much as for my
daughter.” A
salmonella infection in a toddler can be severe, even life threatening,
Rector noted. And news that PCA officials knew the peanut products were
contaminated and released them anyway just makes him mad. “It’s
a pretty bad situation,” he said. “It’s pretty wrong.” |
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