Salad products in Philadelphia and along the East Coast were recently recalled after listeria contamination was discovered in salad greens processed at a State Garden, Inc. facility in Rhode Island. The recall affects prepackaged salads with a use by date of January 15, 2011 that were sold at Wegmans, Giant, Shop & Stop, Shaw’s and other major grocery store chains. Potentially contaminated salads products, packaged both in bags and ready-to-eat plastic clamshells, were sold under the brand names Gold Quality, Hannaford, Nature’s Place, Nature’s Promise, Roche Bros, Northeast Fresh, Noreast Fresh, Olivia’s Organics, Signature and Wegmans.
While no food poisoning cases were reported in connection with this most recent food recall, The Pearce Law Firm, P.C. lawyers note that food-borne pathogens sicken 48 million people in Philadelphia and across the country every year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), food-borne bacteria sicken 1 in 6 Americans annually. Every year 3,000 Americans die from food-borne illness and another 180,000 are hospitalized.
Listeria-contaminated celery from the San Antonio, Texas SanGar Produce & Processing Co. plant was linked to four deaths in October. Last summer, discovery of listeria and E. coli in its prepared salad mixes forced Fresh Express to recall more than half a million salad products nationwide. Listeria can cause high fever, severe headaches, nausea, diarrhea, stomach pain and life-threatening infections in young children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems. E. coli, one of the common food contamination bacteria, can cause severe abdominal cramping, diarrhea, nausea, lethargy, dehydration and, like listeria, can be life-threatening, particularly to the very young and old and anyone with a weak immune system. Read more here.
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