Two recalls this year of roughly 19 million pounds of deli meat and precooked meats may have shoppers questioning whether it’s safe to rely on the convenience of sandwich meats andpremade salads and wraps.
The Boar’s Head listeria outbreak that began in May is still being investigated by federal officials. It now ranks as the largest such outbreak on record with 10 dead and 59 hospitalized to date in 19 states, including Georgia.
On Oct. 9, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees food manufacturers, announced a second recall of nearly 12 million pounds of precooked chicken items made by BrucePac. While there are no illnesses associated with these products, they were used in a dizzying variety of ready-to-eat foods. The list of premade salads, wraps and frozen meals recalled ran to 342 pages and includes national retailers Walmart, Kroger, Publix, Target, Aldi and Trader Joe’s.
Professor Timothy D. Lytton with the Center for Law, Health & Society at Georgia State University College of Law, said while we live in a world full of risks, the mere idea of getting seriously sick and dying from a deli sandwich or premade salad — however remote — can strike a nerve.
“It’s such a surprise if your salad isn’t safe and if your turkey sandwich isn’t safe. You begin to wonder what is safe at all? The anxiety that surrounds that risk is very high,” said Lytton.
Listeria is a type of bacteria that can contaminate many different types of foods. Listeriosis, the disease caused by the bacteria, can be serious and even deadly and is especially dangerous for the very young, those over age 65 and pregnant women or others with a weak immune system.
The bacteria can contaminate vegetables, fruit, unpasteurized cheeses, fish and meat. The largest listeriosis outbreak on record happened in 2011 when contaminated cantaloupe led to 33 deaths and 143 hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Adding to the challenge of listeria are two unusual traits. The bacteria are not killed and can even reproduce in cold or freezing temperatures. And when people ingest the bacteria, illness may not show up for days or even months. That delayed onset can make tracing the source difficult for health officials.
So should people change their shopping or eating habits?
Lytton, also author of the book, “Outbreak: Foodborne Illness and the Struggle for Food Safety,” said while consumers may like the convenience of using deli meat for quick sandwiches, the only way to kill bacteria like listeria is to heat it.
The CDC recommends those at a higher risk of getting very sick from listeria eating deli meat heat it first to an internal temperature of 165 F or until steaming hot. But when the meat is used in premade, cold salads, that isn’t practical.
The reality is the mass manufacturing and traveling of food in the U.S. can put food at more risk of contamination, Lytton said. “Certainly, the more steps there are from farm to table, the more opportunities for cross contamination” said Lytton.
Listeria also spreads easily on deli equipment used to slice the meat, along with any surfaces it comes into contact with. So any manufacturing plant or deli handling a single contaminated item can soon spread that bacteria to other things.
Federal inspectors had documented repeated violations of health and sanitation regulations at the Boar’s Head plant in Jarratt, Virginia, where the outbreak originated, according to The New York Times. Inspectors’ records show they found black mold, extensive rust, water dripping over exposed meat and dead flies. The plant has been shut down indefinitely.
Whether or not the number of people getting food poisoning has been increasing in recent decades is not clear, according to experts. But the number is staggeringly high. The CDC estimates that each year in the U.S., 48 million people, or1 in 6, will get sick; 128,000 are hospitalized; and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases.
The CDC’s surveillance program for collecting and reporting data on foodborne disease outbreaks has improved over the years, which may be the reason we are alerted to more of them, Lytton said.
Most people who ingest listeria bacteria don’t get very sick, if they get any symptoms at all. For those with symptoms, the most common are gastrointestinal such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. The illness listeriosis can be very serious and in some cases fatal.
University of Georgia Professor Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, who directs the university’s Center for Food Safety, said while it’s always concerning when a product is contaminated by a serious pathogen like listeria, he called these latest recalls, “somewhat isolated” events.
He said outbreaks from listeria in the 1990s traced to hot dogs and later to deli meats led to regulatory changes that included incorporating antimicrobial agents into the food formulation that made processed meats safer and reduced the number of outbreaks.
“Given that for the most part the food supply of those reputable brands of deli meats has attained a relatively good level of safety and the track record that goes back to the 1990s. Unfortunately, an event like this happened and the words we use can create some sort of hysteria,” he said. “I don’t think that is something we need right now.”
Meanwhile, Lytton said everyone has to make their own decisions about what is safe or less safe, and how much risk they are willing to take. Some people, he said, will decide to avoid romaine lettuce, which has been prone to foodborne-illness contaminants including E. coli or only eat cooked vegetables. Some people, even those not in a high risk group for food borne illnesses, may decide to heat up all deli meat before they eat it.
Lytton, a vegetarian, doesn’t eat deli meats, but he does eat salads including bagged salad mixes. One thing he will no longer do is drive on highways after a serious car accident. But he acknowledged many people accept the risk of driving on a highway — every day.
Questions about listeria
How does listeria get into food?
Listeria bacteria are found in soil and water, which means they can end up inside things that come into contact with the soil such as vegetables and animals. Once in the food chain, listeria spreads easily on deli equipment and other surfaces.
What makes listeria outbreaks so virulent?
Listeria bacteria can be especially hard to kill because it hides inside the cells of the people and animals it infects. The bacteria are also impervious to cold temperatures. They not only survive under refrigeration, freezing and other food preservation measures, but they thrive — continuing to multiply — in cold storage.
What are the symptoms of a listeria infection?
Most people who ingest listeria don’t get very sick, if they get any symptoms at all. For those who do, symptoms usually show up later, typically in a week or two, but they could come in as little as a few days or appear three months later.
Dr. Marwan Azar, a Yale Medicine infectious diseases expert, said most people will experience common gastrointestinal symptoms seen with food poisoning including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. But with listeriosis, those GI symptoms can present with more flu-like symptoms, like fever, chills and muscle aches, he said.
Listeriosis can cause more serious problems, especially for infants and young children, older adults, pregnant women and others who have a weakened immune system.
Serious complications can include encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain tissue and meningitis or an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Either one of these central nervous system complications can happen if the bacterial infection spreads beyond the gut and into other body systems, such as the spinal cord and brain, according to Azar.
How do you treat a listeria infection?
For relatively mild gastrointestinal symptoms, over-the-counter medications for diarrhea, vomiting and pain are often enough. Doctors treat more serious infections with antibiotics, especially in infants, pregnant women and people over age 65.
How do you prevent a listeria infection?
Cooking food to a safe internal temperature kills germs. The CDC recommends heating deli meats to an internal temperature of 165 F or until “steaming hot,” as the CDC puts it, to kill any potential listeria.
This is especially important for people who are at higher risk of getting sick from listeria, such as older adults, pregnant women and people with a weakened immune system.
Other steps to reduce risk from listeria include eating ready-to-eat foods by use by date on the package. The longer they are stored in the refrigerator, the more time listeria has to grow. Keep the refrigerator clean so listeria doesn’t have a place to grow and spread to other foods. It’s also important to wash your hands before, during and after handling food, and to use separate cutting boards for produce and raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs.
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