Posted on 02/25/2007 1:04:56 PM PST by fanfan
Kraft Foods Takes Precautionary Measure And Removes All Oscar Mayer/Louis Rich Chicken Breast Strips and Cuts From Market
NORTHFIELD, Ill. (Feb. 23, 2007) – On February 18th, Carolina Culinary Foods (CCF), an external manufacturer for Kraft Foods, issued a recall for the Oscar Mayer/Louis Rich Chicken Breast Strips – Grilled, with a "Best When Used By" date of "19 APR 2007" because of a finding of Listeria monocytogenes in a single package. Kraft responded immediately and deployed its sales organization to implement the recall.
While we have had no reports of listeriosis associated with the February 18th recall and have had no other findings of Listeria in our product, our subsequent evaluation has led us to conclude that as a precautionary measure we should expand the scope of our initial action to include all our products made at that facility.
We have advised CCF and the USDA that we are taking this voluntary action. Kraft’s most important responsibility and highest priority is consumer and product safety and we would not allow any product to be sold if we believed it posed a health or safety risk.
Effective immediately, all code dates, sizes, and flavor varieties of Oscar Mayer/Louis Rich Chicken Breast Strips and Cuts with a "Best When Used By" date of 28 MAY 2007 or earlier, are being removed from the marketplace.
We emphasize that this action concerns only Oscar Mayer/Louis Rich Chicken Breast Strips and Cuts with a "Best When Used By" date of 28 MAY 2007 or earlier, and that no other Oscar Mayer or Louis Rich products are impacted by this market action.
The specific products being removed are:
* Oscar Mayer Louis Rich Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat Southwestern Seasoned
Net Wt 6oz, UPC 71871 55720
* Oscar Mayer Louis Rich Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat Grilled
Net Wt 6oz, UPC 71871 55721
* Oscar Mayer Louis Rich Chicken Restaurant Style Breaded Chicken Breast Strips
Net Wt 6oz, UPC 71871 55784
* Oscar Mayer Louis Rich Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat Italian Style
Net Wt 6oz, UPC 71871 55723
* Oscar Mayer Louis Rich Oven Roasted Chicken Breast Cuts with Rib Meat
Net Wt 6oz, UPC 71871 55722
* Oscar Mayer Louis Rich Chicken Honey Roasted Chicken Breast Cuts with Rib Meat
Net Wt 6oz, UPC 71871 55725
* Oscar Mayer Louis Rich Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat Grilled
Family Size -- Net Wt 12oz, UPC 44700 02306
* Oscar Mayer Louis Rich Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat Southwestern Seasoned
Family Size -- Net Wt 12oz, UPC 44700 02307
We ask consumers not to consume these products and call 800-308-1841 for more information.
We are taking a number of corrective actions on our Oscar Mayer/Louis Rich Chicken Strips and Cuts business, to enhance and strengthen our own processing and program controls. We have a goal of always being able to assure consumers of the safety of our products, and we regret not having met that high standard in this case.
Kraft Foods (NYSE:KFT) is one of the world's largest food and beverage companies. For more than 100 years, we've offered consumers delicious and wholesome foods that fit the way they live. Millions of times a day, in more than 150 countries, consumers reach for their favorite Kraft brands. Whether it's breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack, consumers at home and on the go choose: Kraft cheeses, dinners and dressings; Oscar Mayer meats, DiGiorno pizzas, Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers and chips, Philadelphia cream cheese, Milka and Cote d'Or chocolates, Planters nuts, Honey Bunches of Oats cereals, Jacobs, Gevalia and Maxwell House coffees; Capri Sun, Crystal Light and Tang refreshment beverages; and a growing range of South Beach Diet and better-for-you Sensible Solution options.
# # #
Contact: Elisabeth Wenner, Kraft Foods 847.646.4271 elisabeth.wenner@kraft.com
FYI.
Gastritis. It's what's for dinner.
The manifestations of listeriosis include septicemia[1], meningitis (or meningoencephalitis)[1], encephalitis[2], septicemia[1], corneal ulcer[3], Pneumonia[4], and intrauterine or cervical infections in pregnant women, which may result in spontaneous abortion (2nd/3rd trimester) or stillbirth. Surviving neonates of Fetomaternal Listeriosis may suffer granulomatosis infantiseptica - pyogenic granulomas distributed over the whole body, and may suffer from physical retardation.
Influenza-like symptoms, including persistent fever, usually precede the onset of the aforementioned disorders.
Gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may precede more serious forms of listeriosis or may be the only symptoms expressed. Gastrointestinal symptoms were epidemiologically associated with use of antacids or cimetidine.
The onset time to serious forms of listeriosis is unknown but may range from a few days to three weeks. The onset time to gastrointestinal symptoms is unknown but probably exceeds 12 hours.
Wikipedia.
Third world sanitation from plant workers?
That could make sense with lettuce, but chicken strips?
Good odds that a food processing plant in SC would have plenty of illegals with fake documents working in it.
Dont buy prepacked prepared meat and you wont have this problem.
Listeria contamination occurs after cooking & packaging, if I recall correctly. You're right!
or rather, during packaging
I think it comes from stuff sitting around to long, If I recall correctly.
You know that white filmy stuff that starts on meat thats been at the back of the fridge to long? I think thats advanced listeria
Last time it was drip from built up frost from the air conditioning.
Since several people got very ill and there was at least one miscarriage the company was sued out of business.
You might want to get that knee checked.
Or fry it before using it ... my ex made fried bologna sandwiches which were surprisingly good. Listeria usually flourishes in water ... an outbreak in inland waterwways of NC was particularly bad recently. Nasty fish sores, etc.
Ick.
ew!
All I remember is being warned repeatedly while I was pregnant. Listeria is found on precooked, prepackaged meats like hot dogs & baloney -- foods you'd previously thought of as 'safe' since they're cooked. Listeria attacks a fetus and does awful things. Stay far away.
“Third world sanitation from plant workers?”
I’m not saying you are wrong because you could very be right but I don’t know of any recent case of processed food contamination (lettuce, spinach, peanut butter) directly attributable or traced to any worker from the “Third World”.
For one thing, too many good old Americans have poor hygiene too and I’ve seen it first hand and it’s disgusting so let’s not make illegals the scapegoat – they cause enough problems already.
Second, the more processed the food, the more “hands” touch it in one way or another and that increases the likelihood of contamination.
It is just my theory, but I think our overuse of antibacterial agents and antibiotics make us somewhat more susceptible to these bacterial infections.
But most of all the media loves to make us fearful. I suspect that outbreaks of food borne illnesses are not a new thing at all but it’s the news story du jour.
A few summers ago it was shark attacks. Oh the horror! Shark attacks are on the rise and have never been higher. But that wasn’t true. It was just hype.
Your chances of getting sick from one of these “outbreaks” are statistically very low. Your chances of dying are even lower.
I eat out a lot and I love ethnic cuisines of all types, Chinese, Italian, Thai, Indian, Mexican, Ethiopian, Afghani, Portuguese; you name it, I’ll try it. But I go to places that are well established, family owned and with good reputations. I stay away from overly processed foods and practice good hygiene when cooking at home and I never eat food from fast food joints: McDonalds, KFC, etc. So far I’ve never gotten sick from eating any food.
My father was the king of fried baloney sammich consumption.
Yup they are pretty good
Wonder how many from these packaging plants got labeled as a Walmart brand?
Yuo bring up a good point. Ive only seen this stuff it seems on processed meats like balogna and hot dogs.
Stuff that has so many additives it doesnt go "obviously" bad as nature intended.
The added preservatives prolly allow the processed stuff to last to a point where listeria becomes the first sigh of the food being expired.
Here's a trick I came up with: if you have Xrta sharp cheese that is getting hard around the edges, shave off the hard portions and place them between two pieces of thick bologna, and fry the bologna until the cheese is melted good ... put the bologna in heated peta pocket bread and top with sweet cole slaw ... it's gooood.
Now, let me tell you a story.
When I was a welder as a lad, I had to do a job at a meat processing plant.
I saw with my own eyes them take a truckload of hotdogs that had "gone bad" and dump them in a vat of boiling water, and then reprocess them
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