Dive Brief:
- Foster Farms has recalled an undisclosed amount of chicken the company processed in March after regulators tied it to a salmonella case.
- The USDA said back in October that it had concerns that a nationwide salmonella outbreak was linked to chickens processed by Foster Farms, but declined to force a recall because of a lack of hard evidence.
- The USDA now says it has hard evidence after a consumer became ill after eating a piece of chicken he had placed in a freezer months ago.
Dive Insight:
According to investigators, 621 people in 27 states have been infected since March 2013. Now, more than a year later, Foster Farms has issued its first recall in the case.
Federal inspectors have had Foster Farms under close watch. In January they ordered a plant closed after cockroaches were found there for the fifth time in four months. Foster Farms responded by suing an exterminator. Retailers have had Foster Farms under close watch too. Costco, for example, yanked 40,000 pounds of Foster Farms chicken off the shelves in October, despite the absence of hard evidence.