Egg Recall 2012: Listeria-Contaminated Batch Yanked From 34 States

MINNETONKA, Minn. -- A Minnesota food company said Friday it is recalling more than a million hard-cooked eggs distributed to 34 states after testing revealed some may be contaminated with listeria.

Some 15,000 pails of eggs in brine, sold for institutional use, are being recalled, Michael Foods spokeswoman Diane Sparish said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the eggs were produced at the company's plant in Wakefield, Neb., and were bought by food distributors and manufacturers and not sold directly to retailers. There have been no reports of illness connected to the eggs, the agency said.

Lab testing by a third party revealed that some eggs may have been contaminated and the company determined that a repair project in a packaging room was the likely source of contamination, Sparish said in an email to The Associated Press. She said more than a million eggs were being recalled.

Michael Foods has taken a number of corrective steps to address the issue and prevent recurrence, she said.

Listeria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy people may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, the infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

The eggs are sold under six brand names: Columbia Valley Farms; GFS; Glenview Farms; Papetti's; Silverbrook; and Wholesome Farms.

The states included in the recall include: Alabama; Arkansas; Arizona; California; Colorado; Florida; Georgia; Iowa; Illinois; Indiana; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Michigan; Minnesota; Missouri; Mississippi; Montana; North Carolina; North Dakota; Nebraska; New Jersey; Nevada; Ohio; Oklahoma; Oregon; Pennsylvania; South Carolina; Tennessee; Texas; Utah; Washington; Wisconsin; and West Virginia.

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Comments

[BluebirdofUnhappiness]

09:34 PM on 02/06/2012

BTW. This wasn't raw eggs from a factory farm. It was cooked, hardboiled eggs in brine from some sort of industrial cooking set up. It's unclear where the actual contamination came from other than "company determined that a repair project in a packaging room was the likely source of contamination" which means it's not likely from raw eggs, factory farmed or otherwise.

[chiara0]

08:26 PM on 02/06/2012

Yum! Food safety is number one!

[EKAM8]

04:36 PM on 02/06/2012

What do you expect at those CHICKEN CONCENTRATION CAMPS. $$$$$$$$$ at any cost with Chickens crammed in literally like "packed Sardines". Inhumane and Barbaric. The animal is stressed out of its mind,can hardly move and they expect the meat to be right. What about the growth hormones? What are they doing to the chickens and what are they doing to people long term?

[kapalabhati]

01:22 PM on 02/06/2012

We don't need no stinkin' FDA.

[Jude Arsenault]

07:17 PM on 02/05/2012

eggs,even in moderation,are linked to cancer
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2043180/Prostate-cancer-Eating-just-3-eggs-week-significantly-increases-risk.html
http://www.cancerproject.org/ask/eggs.php

[WilmaJune]

06:40 PM on 02/06/2012

Every food we eat has been linked to cancer at one time or other. If you are scared to eat them, DON'T!!!

[Jude Arsenault]

06:53 PM on 02/06/2012

i am against cruelty to animals and all egg production is FULL OF IT!! humans have zero nutritional requirement for eggs,they are nothing more than a SELFISH AND CRUEL PREFERENCE!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PouONmw-q48&feature=player_embedded#!

[Jude Arsenault]

06:54 PM on 02/06/2012

there is no dietary requirement for MISERY!!

[rjrjg]

08:17 PM on 02/04/2012

what are hard cooked eggs? hard boiled? and they sell eggs hard boiled????

[BluebirdofUnhappiness]

09:29 PM on 02/06/2012

It sounds like they sell them for those prepackaged salads and delis and stuff.

Maybe Moe's bar.

[fesambay]

12:22 PM on 02/04/2012

You nown animals. the more you own the more likely more of your animals will get sick. Just numbers. but when you put these amiamals in close confinment one gets sick a lot more of them will get sick then if each had more space to live in. So kids here is the thing. Do not buy from favtory farms and you will get better food. I have plains of buying chicken this year and start selling egges. I will get 100 layers. this will mean 100 egges a day to sell. Not that many but this will require an envestment of about a grand and about 100 hrs of labor before I can even think about the birds. Have to seel a lot of eggs to get my money back but if I can seel 100 a day I will get more birds. I am building for 500 birds. This will require about 1/4 acre of fox proof fence and a house where they can lay and keep warm in winter large enough so that they can move around. On a factory fram this area would have over 100,000 birds in it. Where wopuld you rather get your egges from?

[charon]

08:51 PM on 02/04/2012

You have whether imperfect ornithology.

[WilmaJune]

06:44 PM on 02/06/2012

The eggs in question were sold for Institutional Use. The eggs were not sold at retail stores.

[Blackwing]

11:03 AM on 02/04/2012

Factory farming is animal cruelty. In this case stuffing a bunch of chickens into a tiny cage stuck in a large warehouse-like building where they never touch the ground or see the light of day. In order to prevent disease they are fed massive quantities of antibiotics. The eggs are inferior to chicken eggs that come from humane farming practices. I feel bad for the institution consumers who probably don't have a choice.

[Spock]

10:48 AM on 02/04/2012

In high school I had a teacher who told us he once drank a glass of raw milk and at the bottom of the glass he found a piece of fecal matter. That was the last time he drank raw milk.

[Spock]

10:52 AM on 02/04/2012

Ooops, I meant to post this someplace else.

[Your name here]

04:55 PM on 02/04/2012

You'd get the same re-action someplace else. EEEWWWWW!

[kapalabhati]

01:23 PM on 02/06/2012

But oddly fitting.

[WilmaJune]

06:58 PM on 02/06/2012

I don't believe it. Farmers pour milk from the milker through a cloth like-filter into the milk can. Cows in milking parlors have teats washed if anything is on them. Guess what? My high school science teacher said the same thing. The correct term is manure - fecal matter is human.

[sjk1]

10:22 AM on 02/04/2012

who needs the FDA and all of their silly regulations...

[hellotiki]

10:18 AM on 02/04/2012

They should go after the chickens first, since they laid the ...uh wait a second....I'll be back.

[kapalabhati]

01:24 PM on 02/06/2012

Hee hee hee

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

09:44 AM on 02/04/2012

I swear I'm gonna get a house in the country so I can start growing my own food.

[Amanda Moltke]

02:25 AM on 02/07/2012

i was thinking the exact same thing lol

[breakingpoint]

09:43 AM on 02/04/2012

Wholesome Farms [snicker]

[breakingpoint]

09:42 AM on 02/04/2012

sold for institutional use

[HazelPethigFan]

08:38 AM on 02/04/2012

HuffPost has another story running right now about raw milk food illnesses, but HuffPost SUPPORTS raw milk.

HufPost wants no safety regulations of raw milk.

Illness from raw milk should be one of the foods in THIS story. why does HuffPost want every food borne illness eliminated except those from raw milk?

Come on Huffpost.

[CSKAP]

10:03 AM on 02/04/2012

I missed the article by the HuffPo editorial board supporting Raw Milk sales.
Do you have that link?

[charon]

08:53 PM on 02/04/2012

Reifying Huffpost?