Dive Brief:
- Aspen Foods, owned by Koch Foods, has voluntarily recalled close to 2 million pounds of frozen chicken products following reports that three people in Minnesota have contracted salmonella and linked the illness to Aspen Foods' chicken products.
- The recalled products — packaged with a "P-1358" code in the USDA’s inspection mark — include breaded, raw stuffed chicken breasts produced from April 15 to July 10 in the cordon bleu, broccoli and cheese, chicken Kiev, chicken parmesan, and buffalo-style varieties.
- Koch Foods said in a statement that it would take "this precautionary measure to ensure the safety of our consumers" and that the company would "continue to collaborate with the USDA to prepare the highest quality poultry products."
Dive Insight:
This announcement comes just days after another poultry manufacturer, Barber Foods, a division of AdvancePierre Foods, expanded its recall to 1.7 million pounds of frozen, raw stuffed chicken products, also following reports of salmonella contamination. These two recalls total 3.7 million pounds of chicken, as compared to nearly 18.7 million pounds of meat recalled in 2014. That included 31 poultry-related recalls at a total of about 2.2 million pounds. These two recalls alone already surpass last year's level of poultry recalls by far.
Foodborne illness has been in the headlines a great deal this year. Just earlier this week, the CDC found that food was the major carrier of E. coli over all other sources. However, the CDC also recently reported that the rate of major foodborne infections has seen little or no decrease since 2006.