At the beginning of August, meat manufacturer Cargill initiated a Class I voluntary recall on an unprecedented 36 million pounds of fresh and frozen ground turkey products, after the products were linked to a Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak that killed one person and sickened over a hundred more. Cargill is probably pretty tired of salmonella right now, but salmonella’s not done with Cargill. The manufacturer announced another recall on ground turkey products yesterday, after tests uncovered the presence of the same strain of salmonella in later batches.
Reports indicate that this second recall is much smaller than the original 36 million lb recall of August – this time around Cargill is reeling in 185,000 pounds of contaminated meat, which was produced after the Springdale plant restarted limited production on August 10, following a steam cleaning and the introduction of antibacterial washes into the production process.
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Those measures were apparently not enough, because meat products examined by the USDA on August 24 tested positive for the exact same strain of salmonella that had reared its ugly head on the 3rd. Hence, the new recall and another halting of production at Cargill’s Springdale plant while the source of the contamination is uncovered. "Food safety is a top priority and taken extremely seriously at Cargill because we know that millions of people throughout the U.S. are eating food that we produce every day and we want to do everything we can to make sure that people are getting the safest food possible," Cargill spokesperson Mike Martin told HuffPo.
Luckily for everyone involved, no illnesses have been connected to this batch of turkey products, but that’s no reason to throw caution to the wind. Customers in possession of ground turkey products bearing the identification numbers “P-963” or “P963” are urged to call 1-888-812-1646 for information on what to do next.
