Posted on 05/29/2004 3:00:54 PM PDT by neverdem
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES, May 28 (AP) - A salmonella outbreak traced to one of the world's largest almond producers has sickened about 25 people and prompted a nationwide recall of more than 13 million pounds of almonds.
The size of the recall is likely to grow as federal investigators continue to identify distributors and repackagers of almonds that originated from the company, Paramount Farms in the Central Valley of California, a spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.
An initial recall covered 2.7 million packages of raw almonds sold under the brand names Kirkland Signature, Sunkist and Trader Joe's. On Thursday, Kerry Inc. of Beloit, Wis., recalled almonds sold under its Pacific Seasonings' Gold Shield brand in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Northern California, Hawaii and Guam.
The F.D.A. said people who have bought raw almonds with a best-before date of Aug. 21, 2004, or later should check with their stores to determine whether the almonds came from Paramount Farms.
The F.D.A. has received reports of salmonella enteritidis, a type of food poisoning, in Alaska, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Utah and Michigan. Symptoms include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
So far, investigators have found no trace of salmonella in any of the recalled almonds or at Paramount. Heat, which can come from any kind of cooking, roasting or commercial processing of almonds, is usually enough to kill bacteria. The Blue Diamond cooperative began pasteurizing its almonds three years ago after the last outbreak. Paramount began to use a gas method of pasteurization two weeks ago, the company said.
What a coincidence. A few days ago I sent a bag of almonds from the Central Valley to Hillary.
I didn't realize the story was posted. I had an error message when I thought I had made a failed attempt at posting and became distracted with my computer's pokey performance. Thanks for the comment. 8^)
Wasn't there a similar problem, with this same company, a month or so ago?????
PING
The link in comment# 1 has a link with a date of May 18, IIRC. This story mentions a new gas sterilization method starting 2 weeks ago, IIRC.
Pardon me, but that's May 19, and pasteurization, not sterilization.
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