feAspen Foods Recalls 561,000 More Pounds Of Stuffed Chicken Breasts

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After what we’re guessing were a fraught couple of weeks of discussions between Aspen Foods and the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the government agency warned consumers not to eat the company’s products, stuffed chicken breasts produced since August have officially been recalled. This recall of 561,000 pounds of chicken breasts follows the recall of almost 2 million pounds earlier this year.

That recall covered stuffed chicken breasts produced between April and July, and was because servings of chicken breast may have been contaminated with Salmonella Enteritidis. The USDA took regular samples from the facility where these chicken breasts were packaged after production started up again, and that led to the public health alert and now this recall.

Aspen Foods packages these chicken breast products under a number of private-label and food service brands: what you need to look for is the establishment number P-1358.

If you have the products in your freezer, don’t assume that you can just cook them and kill any bacteria: people who became sick in the first recall reported checking the internal temperatures of their entrées with a meat thermometer, which means that the bacteria may not die at 165 or 170 degrees. Take the chicken back to the store or throw it out.

The symptoms of salmonellosis are diarrhea (which can be severe), abdominal cramps, and a fever. Some healthy people show no symptoms at all. Generally, the illness lasts for 4 to 7 days, but it can have life-threatening complications, especially for people who are very young, very old, or who are already sick or immunocompromised.

In this outbreak, only five people had illnesses that were connected to stuffed chicken breasts: it’s possible that other people were also sick, but didn’t visit a doctor or hospital to have samples taken and linked to contaminated chicken.

If you have questions about the recall, contact Aspen Foods at (844) 277-6802.

Aspen Foods Recalls Frozen, Raw, Stuffed & Breaded Chicken Products Due to Possible Salmonella Enteritidis Contamination [USDA]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist