Posted on 02/09/2007 7:38:45 PM PST by blam
Supermarkets alert for mass turkey recall
Chief scientist raises possibility of emptying shelves of packaged meat
Rebecca Smithers, John Vidal and Paul Lewis
Saturday February 10, 2007
The Guardian (UK)
Sainsbury's has seen a 10% slump in poultry sales. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA
The government's chief scientist said yesterday that packaged turkey meat might have to be removed from supermarket shelves in a mass product recall, as the official inquiry into a bird flu outbreak at a Suffolk farm widened. The frank admission by Sir David King came as the government's Food Standards Agency confirmed it is looking at the possibility that bird flu has entered the human food chain. The FSA is examining how the disease infected turkeys at the Bernard Matthews plant in Holton, Suffolk. It also emerged last night that two loads of meat had arrived at the plant this week from Hungary, where the strain of H5N1 involved is believed to have originated.
Sir David's comments appeared to be at odds with the FSA's insistence that it has no plans at present to recall turkey products. But it became clear yesterday that some supermarkets are already on standby to react to such an emergency. Efforts to maintain consumer confidence in turkey and poultry appeared to have failed; Sainsbury's reported a 10% slump in sales. The store said: "We have seen a dip of approximately 10% in our poultry sales figures as a whole for the past five days compared to the same days last week. The situation is, however, evolving all the time, and the recent bad weather has also been a factor in the drop in sales." Tesco also reported a fall of up to 9% earlier this week.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
BF Ping.
Odd, I thought cooking the meat killed the virus?
Doesn't cooking the poultry kill the virus?
Think about all the things you do with a turkey before you cook it. You'll have a contaminated kitchen, won't you?
Why blam, what do you do with your turkeys before you cook them???
I've never cooked a turkey but I've seen it done, cutting and stuffing and etc.
Yes. And you then have a delicious meal of dead viruses.
Turkeys are my favorite food to make. Lots of left overs for soups and sandwiches.
But all food preparations remain in the sink.
Yum.
And to think, it's only been a couple of months since the elections!
ping... (Thanks, blam!)
Sorry that took so long, I have been off line...
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