By DOUG SCHMITZ
Iowa Correspondent GALT, Iowa — As the nation’s number-one egg producing state, Iowa is still reeling from the national recall of more than half a billion salmonella-tainted shelled eggs that originated from two Iowa egg farms.
The first to be directly linked to the outbreak, Wright County Egg of Galt, issued its initial voluntary recall of 380 million eggs on Aug. 13, after several hundred people reported getting sick in at least 14 states. The company expanded its recall on Aug. 18, making it one of the largest shell egg recalls in U.S. history.
“Wright County Egg is fully cooperating with the FDA’s (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) investigation by undertaking this voluntary recall,” company officials said in an Aug. 13 statement about the recalled eggs, which equal nearly 32 million dozen-egg cartons. “Our primary concern is keeping salmonella out of the food supply and away from consumers.”
Wright County Egg, however, had previously been cited for numerous health, safety and employment violations, the first occurring in 1997.
On Aug. 20, a second egg facility, Hillandale Farms of Iowa, Inc. in New Hampton, came forth to voluntarily recall about 170 million of its contaminated shelled eggs, bringing the total number to an unprecedented 550 billion recalled.
Federal regulations for U.S. egg farms took effect July 9, requiring all egg producers with more than 3,000 hens to take measures to prevent the spread of salmonella, which includes regular testing. Margaret Hamburg, FDA commissioner, said on Aug. 23 the current outbreak started in May and could be traced back to eggs produced at Wright County Egg.
“We believe that had these rules been in place at an earlier time, it would have very likely enabled us to identify the problems on this farm before this kind of outbreak occurred,” she said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said between May and July, nearly 2,000 illnesses from salmonella were linked to the recalled eggs. It added that investigations by 10 states since April have identified 26 cases in which more than one person became ill, with Wright County Egg being the supplier in at least 15 of those.
The CDC is now focusing on restaurants in California, Colorado, Minnesota and North Carolina.
According to the Egg Safety Center, salmonella is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy people infected with salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
In rare circumstances, infection can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections, endocarditis or arthritis.
The FDA stated eggs affected by the recall were distributed to food wholesalers, distribution centers and foodservice companies in Arkansas, California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.
Other states conducting similar state and local investigations of reported cases of salmonella poisoning are Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia and Utah.
So far, an estimated 1,300 people across the country have reported becoming ill after eating the suspected eggs, with no deaths reported, the CDC said.
Kevin Vinchattle, executive director of the Iowa Egg Council – a producer trade group located in Ames – said the owner of both egg farms wanted to acknowledge the problem and seek measures to prevent it from happening again.
“It’s an ongoing, long-term situation because it’s a food source that people depend on and rely on,” he said. “So I think in the long term, we’ll just have to see what happens.
“We want to understand what, if anything, happened and what are the steps, if any, we need to take to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future.”
FDA investigators on the grounds of both egg farms were able to determine on Aug. 26 the cause of the outbreak from four separate test samples taken from chicken manure; manure found on a barn walkway; chicken feed made at a pullet-raising facility that supplies hens to the two egg farms; and a feed ingredient.
Austin Jackson DeCoster of DeCoster Egg Farms in Clarion, who owns both Wright County Egg and Hillandale and supplies chickens and feed to both Iowa egg farms, has reportedly been linked to more than 1,000 cases of salmonella poisoning over the past 13 years.
Wright County Egg is facing two lawsuits related to the recall. The first is from Dutch Farms of Chicago, which stated the company used “unauthorized cartons to package and sell eggs under its brand name without its knowledge.” Dutch Farms’ eggs were distributed to Walgreens and six other states.
The other lawsuit is from a person who said they became ill after eating tainted eggs in a salad at a Kenosha, Wis., restaurant. Bill Marler, a Seattle lawyer who specializes in food poisonings, told the Des Moines Register that a dozen more lawsuits stemming from the outbreak are already being processed.
The recalled eggs were packaged under the following brand names: Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph’s, Boomsma’s, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemps.
The FDA stated eggs are packed in varying sizes of cartons (six-, dozen- and 18-egg cartons) with Julian dates ranging from 136 to 225 and plant numbers 1026, 1413 and 1946. In addition, dates and codes can be found stamped on the end of the egg carton. The plant number begins with the letter P and then the number; the Julian date follows the plant number (for example: P-1946 223).
Consumers should return the eggs in the original carton to the store where they were purchased for a full refund, according to the Egg Safety Center. The recalled eggs represent fewer than 1 percent of the 80 billion eggs produced in the U.S. each year, it added. The FDA said it would be conducting routine inspections of egg farms throughout the U.S. With more than 80 egg producers having 57 million layers producing approximately 14.25 billion eggs per year, Iowa is the nation’s top egg-producing state, followed by Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania.
For more information about the recall, visit www.eggsafety.org |
