Remember that there has been a very large recall that is likely to affect you and your family. Oklahoma-based BrucePac is recalling nearly 10 million pounds of various ready-to-eat meat and poultry items. This is due to risk of listeria contamination and it involves hundreds of products found in stores nationwide.
You may not have heard of the brand BrucePac, but this does mean you are safe from any concerns. The company supplies such chains as Walmart, Costco, Target, 7-Eleventh and others among several others. This means that some of the products you have purchased may be subject to this recall since, you may not know it.
There is also a new report from the USDA that is more than 300 pages long that outlines each item that is part of the recall. Such items include El Monterey Mexican Grill Chicken and Cheese Taquitos, some frozen Trader Joe’s Chicken Chow Mein, and Chicken Tikka Masala from Good & Gather. This is a laundry list of known affected products but there are still a number of products that are likely to be affected.
What is important now, is that you check the food in your fridge as well as the freezer for any ready to eat meat or poultry products that you might have purchased recently. Try and look for their lot codes or best before dates, and check if they tallies with the ones specified in the recall. If any of them turn out to be an affected product, then you will either have to take it back to the place you bought it or dispose of it.
This recall has been issued because one of the tested samples of the ready-to-eat chicken of BrucePac was found containing Listeria monocytogenes which is a pathogen causing listeria infection. Although anyone can get infected with listeria, some risk groups are identified as older people, women who are pregnant and people who are immunocompromised. Listeria infection can be characterized by several symptoms such as fever, and muscle pains as well as gastrointestinal symptoms including but not limited to diarrhea. In even worse scenarios, it can provoke confusion and inability to maintain balance or even abnormal body drawing.
Fortunately, as indicated earlier, there have been no cases of illnesses or fatalities associated with the recalled products registered to date. However, this does not suggest that the threat is not present. All great caution is advised as you are urged not to forget the existing recalled food items that you may have and refrain from using them. While it is true that no signs have been observed, it is always safer to respect the upper limits of caution and dismiss this notice.
To learn more about this particular situation, which is a recall, and its possible effects, you can visit FSIS’ official site which will also be providing more information in the near future. In case you happen to have any of the affected products, make sure to follow the guidelines for their return or disposal. Such actions, would presumably, mitigate the risk of the health hazard posed to you and those you care for.
