Huge U.S. based chicken recall!

Be aware of a HUGE recall on chicken from predominantly one provider that is used in one heck of a lot of products.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2019 – Tip Top Poultry, Inc, a Rockmart, Ga., establishment, is recalling an undetermined amount of ready-to-eat (RTE) poultry products that may be adulterated with Listeria monocytogenes , the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The frozen cooked, diced or shredded, RTE chicken products were produced between January 21, 2019 and September 24, 2019. The products subject to recall can be found in this spreadsheet. [View labels (PDF only)].

The products subject to recall bear establishment number “Est. P-17453” inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to institutions nationwide in the United States and Canada (see the recalled products distributed in Canada).

The problem was discovered when the firm notified FSIS that multiple samples of product produced by Tip Top Poultry, Inc. confirmed positive for the presence of Listeria monocytogenes after being tested in Canada. The firm decided to recall all cooked, diced or shredded, RTE chicken products produced from January 21, 2019 through September 24, 2019 with product codes ranging from 10000 to 19999 and 70000 to 79999. Tip Top expanded the dates and the scope of the recall out of an abundance of caution.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider.

Consumption of food contaminated with L. monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, a serious infection that primarily affects older adults, persons with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women and their newborns. Less commonly, persons outside these risk groups are affected.

Listeriosis can cause fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms. An invasive infection spreads beyond the gastrointestinal tract. In pregnant women, the infection can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, premature delivery or life-threatening infection of the newborn. In addition, serious and sometimes fatal infections in older adults and persons with weakened immune systems. Listeriosis is treated with antibiotics. Persons in the higher-risk categories who experience flu-like symptoms within two months after eating contaminated food should seek medical care and tell the health care provider about eating the contaminated food.

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2019/recall-094-2019-release

Full pdf list of retail chains affected:
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/bde0efc3-62cf-4d20-8066-2fcff7d65b76/rc-094-2019-retail-list.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

Full pdf of branded products affected:
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/074b7b68-f2f3-49ed-9ee1-7fbba2a18595/094-2019-products-list.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

Full pdf with pictures of labels affected:
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/488afa44-c35c-4bcf-8f29-97cb4790725d/094-2019-Labels.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

Holy shit. That’s 8 months worth of chicken production? How much of that has already been consumed?

Oh, precooked chicken meat and products thereof. I think I should be fine. I almost never buy pre-assembled chicken stuff and have never bought pre-cooked diced chicken or similar.

Apparently here it also affects some of the, “fresh,” chicken also shipped from that provider. At least that was the message on the TV earlier. But yeah it’s mostly chicken based products, but a whole lot of them.

And yeah, 8 months of all those brands is one hell of a recall.

Our USDA doing a fantastic job of not catching this stuff and leaving regulation to the company… to not do. Thank you Canada for having our backs.

Good to know the FDA is in the pocket of Big Chicken too.

Cooking renders listeria safe, so fresh chicken is less likely to cause infection. With poor hygiene it can easily contaminate other food (or the chicken meat after cooking) though.