Public Alarmed By More Tainted Food Recalls

By Jerry Garner

In the past week alone, we have seen recalls of peanut butter, fruit and baby food. Now pre-cooked chicken breasts have joined the list of contaminated products, leaving the public to wonder exact what is safe to eat and what isn’t.

The scare began last week when two ConAgra Foods products, Peter Pan peanut butter and Great Value peanut butter, were recalled and pulled from shelves. The products had been linked to an outbreak of Salmonella that caused nearly 300 people in 39 States to fall ill. Of those, 46 were hospitalized for serious conditions.

The Salmonella outbreak came on the heels of a similar outbreak last November in which tomatoes were linked to the illness. It not only resulted in multiple lawsuits being filed against ConAgra Foods, but also left Congress wondering if the US food supply is vulnerable to terror attacks.

The food scare was intensified on Friday when Dole Fresh Fruit Company recalled more than 6,100 cartons of Cantaloupes. The fruit, which was imported from Costa Rica, was also infected with a strain of Salmonella. Although there have been no reports of illness linked to the fruit, the Associated Press reported that it had been distributed to wholesale outlets in Quebec and in the Eastern United States.

The same day, Earth’s Best Organic recalled a large amount of baby food with fears that it may have been contaminated with Clostridium Botulinum, a life threatening bacteria more commonly known as Botulism.

The manufacturer or Earth’s Best Organic voluntarily recalled more than 4,000 cases of individual jars and more than 38,000 variety packs, according to a prepared statement released by the FDA. Production of the baby food has been suspended until the company and the FDA can determine, and eliminate, the source of the problem.

The baby food that was recalled is part of the company’s “2nd Vegetables, Fruits and Blends” product line, and is intended for infants 6 months and up. The jars were distributed through retail outlets and also sold on the Earth’s Best web site, according to the FDA.

The publicity surrounding such a large amount of contaminated food products in such a short period of time has left the public wondering what is safe to eat.

"Our country has pretty good food regulation standards so the fact that we've had a lot of incidents lately is pretty shocking," says Matt Wolf, a shopper from Illinois.

To add to the ever-growing list of tainted food products, we are now being told that more than 26 tons of pre-cooked chicken breasts have been recalled after the meat was confirmed to be contaminated with Listeria Monocytogenes. If ingested, this contamination could develop into Listeriosis, an infection that is rare, but very serious.

The recall was issued by Carolina Culinary Foods of South Carolina. The company recalled more than 52,000 pounds of fully cooked chicken breasts that were produced on February 9th and distributed to retailers nationwide.

The recalled product are labeled “OSCAR MAYER/LOUIS RICH CHICKEN BREAST STRIPS WITH RIB MEAT, GRILLED, FULLY COOKED -- READY TO EAT.” Each 6-ounce package contains the number “P-19676” inside the USDA inspection mark on the front, and a use-by date of “19 Apr 2007” on the back.

Consumers with questions about the chicken recall should contact Kraft Consumer Response at 800-871-7117.

The latest event has left many wondering about the inspection process of the food that finds it’s way to our kitchen.

"I don't know if it's under-funding that we don't have the inspectors that we need to go out into the fields and make sure the companies are abiding by the rules that are set down," says shopper Mike Luke.

Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done on an individual level short of growing your own food, an option that is not realistic for the majority of the population. This leaves most consumers with no option other than to simply hope that the food they are eating isn’t poisoning them.

"You can't grow things in your home to the amount that there is out there to get so I don't know, you know, what are you gonna do?" Luke continued.

The unusually high volume of contaminated food products has left some members of Congress wondering if the US food supply is vulnerable to attacks from terrorists.

"If we cannot protect the nation's supply of peanut butter, one must ask how prepared we are for a terrorist attack on our nation's food supply," Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak said on Friday in response to the contaminated jars of Peter Pan peanut butter.

Consumer protection groups are also outraged and filing official complaints with the Federal Government. The groups charge that the agencies in charge of protecting the nations food supplies are all but negligent due to improper coordination. Complaints reference the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the US Department of Agriculture.

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Cooked Chicken Breasts Join Tainted-Food Recalls

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