Weeks after tainted Boar's Head deli meats led to nationwide recalls, illnesses and 10 deaths, food safety regulators have initiated another recall due to fears of listeria.
Oregon-based BrucePac, which supplies prepared products to various grocery stores, announced the recall of 12 million pounds of chicken and other meat products. The company’s supply chain impacts many states, including Illinois.
The recall is, once again, sending shoppers scrambling to check bags and fridges.
“I look at labels and stuff, so yeah I definitely pay attention to that,” Ashley Grice, a shopper who is pregnant and at high-risk of listeria infection told NBC Chicago.
“I’ve been hearing about a lot of different recalls and it makes you scared,” she said.
The new recall impacts nearly every major grocery chain, including Jewel-Osco, Target, 7-Eleven, Walmart, Trader Joe's, Aldi, Costco and Walmart.
BrucePac supplied cooked chicken and meat products that were re-branded under various generic names. Nearly 350 products are impacted, including many chicken salads, wraps and prepared taco and burritos.
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“You’ve got the regulators doing their job, and in this case pulling products where they need to,” Brian Schaneberg, the Director of the Institute for Food Safety and Health at Illinois Tech said.
Schaneberg said the back-to-back recalls linked to listeria are concerning, but not necessarily a trend in the industry.
Lately, FDA and USDA regulators have become more proactive with recalls, often pulling products only deemed potentially harmful. There have been no reported illnesses from this most recent outbreak, but symptoms can take weeks to occur.
“I would say it’s coincidental at this stage, there’s nothing industry-wise that’s a concern for eating food. Generally, the food industry is safe. We just happened to have two that showed up here all at once,” Schaneberg said.
Pregnant women, older adults and people with weakened immune systems are at higher-risk of listeria infection.
Listeria symptoms
According to the FSIS, the recall was initiated after officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture detected listeria in samples of poultry during routine testing.
There are no confirmed reports of illness linked to the recall, officials added.
The recall comes as a 10th death was recently reported from a massive Boars Head deli meat listeria recall, which has seen at least 59 people in 19 states sickened and shuttered a Boars Head processing plant in Virginia.
Listeria is an infection caused by bacteria. When listeria infects the intestines, it causes gastrointestinal symptoms similar to other foodborne illnesses, such as diarrhea and vomiting, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Invasive listeria is especially concerning for people who are pregnant, newborn babies, older adults and people who have weakened immune systems, TODAY.com reported. In pregnant people, invasive listeria can lead to miscarriage, premature delivery and stillbirth. The illness can also cause a life-threatening infection in the newborn.
The signs of a invasive listeria infection in pregnant people include fever and flu-like symptoms, such as fatigue and muscle aches, according to the CDC.
Other people might also experience:
- Headache
- Stiff neck
- Confusion
- Loss of balance
- Seizures
