Almost 2 Million Eggs Recalled Due to Salmonella
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and public health officials in several states are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections linked to eggs sold in grocery stores.
August Egg Co., of Hilmar, Calif., is recalling around 1.7 million dozen brown cage-free and brown certified organic eggs because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.
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The eggs were distributed from Feb. 3 through May 15, with sell-by dates from March 4 to June 4 within California and Nevada. The eggs were distributed at such retail locations as Save Mart, FoodMaxx, Lucky, Smart & Final, Safeway, Raleys, Food 4 Less, and Ralphs.
The eggs were also distributed from Feb. 3 through May 6, with sell-by dates from March 4 to June 19, to Walmart locations in California, Washington state, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nebraska, Indiana and Illinois.
The recalled eggs have printed on the carton or package the plant code number P-6562 or CA5330, with the Julian Dates between 32 and 126.
For a full list of recalled products, retailers and consumers can go to the FDA website.
Consumers who may have these eggs should return them to their place of purchase for a full refund.
As of June 6, there were 79 cases of Salmonella in seven states linked to the eggs. Twenty-one people have been hospitalized.
August Egg Co. isn't selling fresh shell eggs at this time. It has voluntarily been diverting eggs to an egg-breaking plant for more than 30 days, which pasteurizes the eggs and kills any potential foodborne pathogens. The company's internal food safety team is also conducting its own review to identify what measures can be taken to prevent this situation from recurring.
The company issued the following statement: "We are committed to addressing this matter fully and to implementing all necessary corrective actions to ensure this does not happen again.”
Salmonella is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections, endocarditis and arthritis.
