Cargill, one of the nation’s largest meat producers, announced the recall of more than 35 million pounds of ground turkey Wednesday, linked to an ongoing outbreak of salmonella that has sickened 76 people nationwide and killed one in California.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the voluntary recall is for fresh and frozen ground turkey products produced by Cargill Value Added Meats out of its Springdale, Ark., plant from Feb. 20 through Aug. 2. The company has suspended production of ground turkey products at this plant, but notes other turkey products produced at Springdale are not part of the recall.

Consumers are urged to return any opened or unopened packages of ground turkey items listed on the Cargill product-recall list ( [link to DON'T_USE-THIS] for a full refund.

Because the recall goes back so far, much of the meat probably already has been consumed, says Richard Raymond, former undersecretary for food safety at USDA.

The recall is the largest Class I recall in USDA’s history, meaning it “involves a health hazard situation in which there is a reasonable probability that eating the food will cause health problems or death,” according to USDA rules.

The nation’s largest recall occurred in 2008, when USDA officials ordered Westland Meat to recall two years of product, 143 million pounds of beef, because the company did not keep sick animals from entering the food supply. However, that was a Class II recall, which carried “a remote probability of adverse health consequences.”

The current recall comes the same day Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the International Association for Food Protection that safe food is a national priority, with an emphasis on prevention.

“For poultry, we’ve established new, tougher performance standards for salmonella,” he told the audience in Milwaukee. “Establishments that fail to meet our new standards will have their names published and undergo a more intensified inspection.”

Federal and state officials have searched for the cause of the salmonella outbreak for months. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an investigation saying the microbe, salmonella Heidelberg, is resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics.

[link to morgellonsitchyrash.com]


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