• 05
  • August
    2011

As consumers, we put a lot of trust in the manufacturers and vendors of the foods that we eat every day. When you go to the grocery store, you might pick something up to look at the nutrition information and its expiration date. But scarily, that is sometimes not enough to save people from serious personal injury or even death.

Sometimes, there is danger lurking in foods that our package-scouting won't protect us from. That is why there are government organizations meant to protect consumers from potential health dangers of products, including food. They can demand a product recall when a product is causing sickness, injury and death.

A recently recalled product is ground turkey. Officials have found traces of salmonella in the popular meat product which can be deadly in some cases. At this point, there has been one death associated with the recent salmonella outbreak. Nearly 80 people, however, have gotten sick from the product, including at least one in Alabama.

Critics are upset at this point with the CDC and USDA because they feel that the product recall didn't happen soon enough. It was only this Wednesday when Cargill was told to recall the ground turkey product, even though the first sign of the salmonella problem in these cases came up about five months ago.

The officials say that they held off on the recall for Cargill's business purposes. They didn't want to force the company to recall one of its top products until the source of the salmonella was undoubtedly identified.

If you think that you might have some ground turkey you've been saving in your refrigerator, you cannot be too careful. Check the packaging and see if it is a batch that came from Springdale, Arkansas, between Feb. 20 and Aug. 2. If so, it is dangerous. When in doubt, throw it out. There's never been a better excuse to go for the fattier hamburger rather than a turkey burger.

Source

CBS News: "Why did it take so long to recall ground turkey?" Ryan Jaslow, Aug. 5, 2011