Listeria monocytogenes, a potentially deadly bacteria, may have contaminated food sent to hundreds of schools in at least 16 US states.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) proclaimed earlier this month that over £11.7 million of “ready-to-eat meat and poultry products” had been recollected by producer BrucePac after discovering bacteria during a regular inspection at a facility in Durant, Oklahoma.
Last week, the USDA released a “preliminary list” of around 200 schools that had been sent the items while the recollected meat was included in meals sold at various grocery stores in more than 20 states.
The list, updated on Thursday, included schools in the District of Columbia and other states, including New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Michigan, New York, Iowa, and Tennessee.
The USDA’s National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs did not supply any of the products recalled; instead, the schools purchased their food directly from private vendors.
This is not clear whether all the products has been removed from distribution as of Monday. As of last week, there are no confirmed records of related illness.
USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) release stated that it was “concerned that some product may be available for use in restaurants, institutions, schools and other establishments,” urging the establishments to discard the recollected items or return them.
Meat suspended to contain the bacteria was included in products sold under a variety of popular brands, including but not limited to Boston Market, Ready Meals, Amazon Fresh, Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, Michelina’s, Dole, Udi’s, H-E-B, Atkins, Amazon Kitchen, Michael Angelo’s, Good & Gather and Great Value.
Youngest, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems are considered particularly vulnerable to listeriosis, an infection of Listeria monocytogenes. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 260 of an estimated 1,600 annual cases are fatal.
Many listeriosis infections are limited to the digestive system, with signs like diarrhoea and vomiting developing within a day of consuming contaminated food; a more invasive form of the illness develops in some within a fortnight.
Signs of the invasive illness include headache, stiff neck, fever, muscle aches, confusion, loss of balance and seizures. About 5% of the people who contracted the invasive form of listeriosis without being pregnant will die of the illness.
According to the CDC, with pregnant people, symptoms are generally mild or nonexistent, but invasive illness “usually leads to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, or life-threatening infection of the newborn.”
Outbreaks of serious illnesses occur infrequently, and concerns about contamination with bacteria are a common cause of food product recalls, while cases of listeriosis are relatively rare.
Although the CDC noted that “the true number of sick persons in this outbreak is likely higher than the number reported,” earlier this year, an outbreak tied to recalled Boar’s Head deli meats had killed ten people and sickened at least 59 others as by late September.
The CDC stated on September 25, “Some individuals improve without medical care and are not tested for Listeria.” “Furthermore, recent illnesses may not yet be describe as it mostly takes 3 to 4 weeks to consider if a sick person is part of an outbreak.”
