U.S. Food Safety: A Grocery List of Tainted Products

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Monday, January 14, 2008; 10:00 AM

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MONDAY, Jan. 14 (HealthDay News) -- In a little less than a year and a half, the list of tainted foods has become as varied as it is long.

And the impact on people is stark:

• An E. coli bacteria outbreak in bagged fresh spinach grown in California by Natural Selections killed three people and sickened more than 200 others in 26 states and Canada.
• Salmonella in batches of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter, made by ConAgra Inc., sickened 625 people in 47 states.
• Salmonella-tainted tomatoes served in restaurants sickened 183 people in 21 states and Canada.
• E. coli-contaminated lettuce from California served at two Taco John's restaurants in two states sickened 80 people.
• An E. coli outbreak in iceberg lettuce used by the Taco Bell chain sickened more than 70 people in five northeastern states.
• A salmonella-contamination warning was issued for all Banquet chicken and turkey pot pies, made by ConAgra, after 139 cases of infection appeared in 30 states.
• A nationwide recall of a children's snack, Veggie Booty, by Robert's American Gourmet Food Inc., followed 52 reports of salmonella illness in 17 states, mostly involving children under 10.
• Reports of 25 illnesses from E. coli prompted the Topps Meat Co. to issue a nationwide recall of 21.7 million pounds of ground beef products, one of the largest meat recalls in U.S. history.
• General Mills recalled 3.3 million pounds of frozen meat pizza products following reports of E. coli contamination sickening 21 people in 10 states.
• Cargill Inc. recalled more than 800,000 pounds of ground beef distributed through Sam's Club after E. coli poisoning sickened at least four children.
• Cargill issued a nationwide recall of more than 1 million pounds of ground beef sold to top supermarkets, because of potential E. coli contamination.
• Castleberry Food Co. recalled more than 90 products, including children's snack foods, because of potential botulism contamination.
• Kraft's recalled 24,000 cases of white chocolate baking squares because of potential salmonella contamination.
• Oscar Mayer recalled 52,650 pounds of chicken breasts because of Listeria monocytogenes contamination.