A Texas firm has recalled about 2,600 pounds of fully cooked, ready-to-eat smoked turkey breast products because they may be contaminated with bacteria that can cause a potentially fatal disease.

The products by the New Braunfels Smokehouse were distributed nationwide, including via catalog and Internet sales, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Sunday.

The meat may be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes, the agency said.

The products subject to recall are:

-- 1-pound packages of New Braunfels Smokehouse Sliced Smoked Turkey, with the package code "2210" on the label.

-- 4- to 6-pound packages of New Braunfels Honey-Glazed Spiral Sliced Smokehouse Hickory Smoked Boneless Breast of Turkey, with the package code "2180" on the label.

-- 4- to 6-pound whole breast packages of Stegall Boneless Hickory Smoked Turkey Breast, with the package code "2210" on the label.

-- 4- to 6-pound whole breast packages of Stegall Spiral Sliced Hickory Smoked Turkey Breast, with the package codes "2180" or "2210" on the label.

Each package bears the USDA mark of inspection and the number "P-975" inside the mark of inspection.

The items were produced on August 4.

Consumption of food contaminated with listeria monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, an uncommon but potentially fatal disease, the agriculture department said.

Healthy people rarely contract listeriosis. But it can cause can cause high fever, severe headaches, neck stiffness and nausea. It also can cause miscarriages and stillbirths, the agency said.

Consumers with questions about the recall may call the company at 1-800-537-6932.

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16-Mar-2010
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has met with members of the spice industry to consider ways to make supply safer, following salmonella contamination of salami products linked to black and red pepper.

Earlier this week, further pepper recalls were announced by the companies that supplied spices to Daniele International, Inc., the salami manufacturer that recalled its products after they were found to be tainted with salmonella in January. Daniele recalled more than a million tonnes of salami products on January 23, and soon after, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its tests suggested the outbreak was related to pepper in the salami.

Now the FDA is trying to work out how to make spices safer. That could involve the spice industry treating its products with one of three possible kill steps for salmonella: irradiation, steam heating or fumigation with ethylene oxide, according to Jeff Farrar, FDA associate commissioner for food safety, quoted by the Washington Post.

"The bottom line is, if there are readily available validated processes out there to reduce the risk of contamination, our expectation is that they will use them," he was quoted as saying.
However, the FDA does not currently have the authority to order the spice industry to treat its products.

The Food Safety Modernization Act, currently awaiting a full Senate hearing after being unanimously passed by committee in November, would give the FDA the power to require food ingredients manufacturers to take steps to prevent contamination. A companion bill, the Food Safety Enhancement Act was approved by the House in July.

Salmonella is the most common bacterial pathogen associated with spice recalls and illness outbreaks, according to the American Spice Trade Association.

The recall of salami due to salmonella contamination at Daniele International has been linked to 249 illnesses across 44 states and the District of Columbia. No deaths have been associated with the recall.

This article is available at http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/On-your-radar/Food-safety/FDA-considers-spice-supply-safety

Source: Kingston University
2 March 2010 - Countries producing food containing harmful bacteria and toxins could be named and shamed more quickly using a worldwide alert system devised by a team of scientists from Kingston University in South West London.
The team, led by Professor Declan Naughton, says the easy to use computer tool can be used to monitor contaminated products; helping to prevent them reaching shop shelves and ensuring that food is safe to eat.

Thousands of alerts about contaminated food are produced each year, particularly by developed countries, but there is no single international system for monitoring food safety. This prompted Professor Naughton and his colleagues, from the School of Life Sciences, to develop a program to analyse alerts and produce a global picture of the countries that trade and detect contaminated food that can be deadly or cause health problems from food poisoning to long term degenerative diseases. Professor Naughton recently presented a summary of the team's findings to a conference organised by the European Food Security Authority, the EU's food safety and security watchdog.

Professor Naughton said the program was the most sophisticated available, providing more detailed information more quickly than its rivals. "No other system can reflect the complexity of this information in a snapshot form," he said."It can be particularly helpful to developing countries new to food testing because information is easy to access and available in minutes." The program could also be applied to other global health hazards such as pest control or illegal animal or plant imports.

China, Iran, Turkey, the United States and Spain were the top five offenders when it came to producing contaminated food, according to an analysis of data from 2003-2008. Over the same five-year period, Italy, Germany, the UK, Spain and the Netherlands were the countries that reported the largest number of contaminated products from other countries. Toxins in pistachio nuts from Iran, food recalled by major supermarket chains and imported products stopped by border agencies were among the alerts included in the analysis.

Professor Naughton said the program could provide profiles of individual countries that had problems with food safety as well as identifying particular contaminants that needed investigating, such as high levels of mercury in fish. He said: "We'd like to develop the tool to create an international alert system that will provide real time information about emerging patterns and problems." The program could also be used to help prepare for malicious or terrorist attempts to contaminate food, he added.

Professor Naughton, a biochemist, worked with Dr Andrea Petroczi, a statistician, and Dr Tamas Nepusz, a computer programmer in a multi-disciplinary team.

This article was taken from FLEX NEWS - Business News for the Food Industry http://www.flex-news-food.com/pages/29115/UK/uk-scientists-devise-global-food-alert.html