Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa, has now recalled 380 million eggs that were shipped to food wholesalers, distribution centers and food-service companies in 17 states. Those companies ship nationwide, the egg producer said in a statement issued Wednesday night.
At least 300 people have been reported sickened by eggs, and a food safety expert told AOL News today that the recall "is not a fluke," blaming the outbreak on the proliferation of so-called factory farms.
Wright County Egg officials say they are making a serious response to the situation.
"We are undertaking this additional recall to further protect the safety of consumers -- this voluntary measure is consistent with our commitment to egg safety, and it is our responsibility," the company said in its statement. The company initially recalled 228 million eggs.
Cases of Salmonella enteritidis were first reported in California, Colorado and Minnesota, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and state health officials are now investigating salmonella outbreaks in Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.
Wright County initially said the eggs in the recall were sold under the labels of Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph's, Boomsma's, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemps.
NuCal Foods of Ripon, Calif., which recalled millions of eggs it had purchased from the Iowa company, added Bayview, Mountain Dairy, NuLay and Sun Valley to the list of consumer brands.
The eggs come in six-egg, 12-egg and 18-egg cartons with Julian dates ranging from 136 to 225 and plant numbers 1026, 1413 and 1946. Dates and codes can be found stamped on the end of the egg carton. The plant number begins with the letter P and then the number. The Julian date (the numeric date of the year that the eggs were packaged) follows the plant number, for example: P-1946 223.
Patty Lovera, assistant director of the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch, said the outbreak was predictable.
"It's just the latest example of how the consolidation of food production puts consumers at risk," she said. "Ninety-five percent of all eggs come from facilities with 75,000 birds or more. Five states produce half of the nation's eggs-Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and California. If something goes wrong in one of these areas, it has a negative impact on the entire country.
"The fact that this recall takes place one month after long-awaited regulation by the FDA for salmonella prevention in large egg facilities kicked in proves that there's still a lot of work to be done .... the best way to prevent outbreaks of this magnitude is to encourage smaller and regionally dispersed production. There's no reason chickens can't thrive in all 50 states."
The illnesses have been developing rapidly since early June, with more than 300 cases of this strain of salmonella being reported. This is four times the number of cases normally reported, the CDC says, but the agency cautions that for every case of salmonella reported, another 38 to 40 never make the official tallies.
The first of what is likely to be many lawsuits was filed Wednesday against Wright County Egg and a restaurant in Kenosha, Wis.
The suit brought by the Seattle-based law firm of Marler Clark alleges that a woman consumed a Cobb salad containing eggs at a Kenosha restaurant in July and soon after was hospitalized with Salmonella enteritidis.
Recalled eggs might still be in grocery stores, restaurants, institutional kitchens and consumers' homes. With current government trace-back requirements, it's often difficult, if not impossible, to track precisely where the eggs have been sold.
The FDA says that egg-associated illness caused by salmonella is a serious public health problem and that 79,000 cases of food-borne illness and 30 deaths are caused each year by consumption of eggs contaminated with the enteritidis strain.
The food safety agency urges consumers and commercial uses to carefully examine eggs they may have in their refrigerators, especially any eggs purchased between May 16 and Aug. 13.
Many people wrongly assume that the egg's shell protects against salmonella, but that's not necessarily so, says the egg industry's Egg Safety Center. Although it does offer some protection, the porous shell itself is not a foolproof barrier against bacteria. And, in the mid-1980s, U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers found instances where salmonella lurked in the yolk of eggs from infected hens.
Federal food safety agencies urge consumers :
- Not to eat recalled eggs or products containing recalled eggs and warn that recalled eggs might still be in grocery stores, restaurants or homes.
- To keep shell eggs refrigerated at less than 45 degrees at all times; discard cracked or dirty eggs; and do not keep eggs warm or at room temperature for more than two hours.
- To avoid restaurant dishes made with raw or undercooked, unpasteurized eggs, such as Hollandaise sauce or Caesar salad dressing, which call for raw eggs. Eggs that have been pasteurized are fine for these uses.
- To cook eggs at temperatures of 160 degrees or higher to kill any salmonella bacteria.
In rare circumstances, infection with salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections, endocarditis or arthritis, the CDC says.