Missouri-based Good Earth Egg Company has issued a recall for a variety of egg products that health officials have connected to an outbreak of salmonella in three states.
The Good Earth Egg Company announced it would voluntary recall eggs after the Food and Drug Administration notified the company that eight people in Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois tested positive for a strain of Salmonella Oranienburg that traced to its products.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA, and several state health departments are currently investigating the outbreak.
“In light of this investigation, and with an abundance of caution, Good Earth Egg Company has initiated a voluntary recall of all shell eggs,” the company said in a notice posted on the FDA website.
The eggs were were distributed throughout the Midwest at retailers — including Dierbergs, Straubs, Midtowne Market, and Price Chopper, the wholesale level, institutions, restaurants, and to walk-in customers.
The recall covers a variety of sizes of shell eggs packaged in 6-count, 10-count, 12-count, and 18-count cartons, as well as 15 dozen cases, and 30 dozen cases. The products can be identified by the sell by date of 10/08/2016, the code 252, and a stamp reading “Packed for” or “Produced for Good Earth Egg Company.”
Consumers do not need to return the product to the store where it was purchased. Instead, they should discard the eggs and their containers and thoroughly clean the storage area where they were kept.
“Although no Good Earth Egg Company eggs have tested positive for Salmonella, we feel strongly that issuing a voluntary recall is the right thing to do. Good Earth Egg Company is working closely with the FDA to determine the root cause of the potential contamination,” the company said.
According to the CDC, eight people were infected with the outbreak, with two of those people hospitalized. Of those infected, six were from Missouri and one each from Kansas and Illinois.
In interviews with the CDC, six of the consumer who became ill reported eating shell eggs at home or in restaurants in the week before the illness started.
Federal, state, and local health and regulatory officials then performed a traceback investigation from one restaurant location in Missouri where three ill people reported eating eggs. This investigation indicated that Good Earth Egg Company supplied eggs to that restaurant.
“Epidemiologic, laboratory, and traceback investigations have identified shell eggs distributed by Good Earth Egg Company of Bonne Terre, Missouri as the likely source of the infections in this outbreak,” the CDC states.
The CDC cautions that illnesses that occurred after September 9, 2016, might not yet be reported due to the time it takes between when a person becomes ill and when the illness is reported.
This isn’t the first recall for The Good Earth Egg Company. The CDC notes that the company recalled all of its shell eggs in Jan 2016 after they were connected to a 2015 Salmonella Oranienberg outbreak that sickened 52 people in six states.
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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