DELAURO ON THIRD LARGEST RECALL OF CONTAMINATED MEAT

Responds to recall of nearly 36 million pounds of ground turkey

Washington, DC— Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3), Ranking Member on the Labor, Education, Health, and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, issued the following statement today in response to the nationwide Salmonella outbreak that has sickened 78 people, killed one, and prompted the recall of nearly 36 million pounds of ground turkey products. The contaminated meat was produced at a single Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation plant in Springdale, Arkansas and distributed to consumers across the country.

Congresswoman DeLauro will be questioning the company and involved agencies about their response to this recall later this week.

“This massive recall is yet another example of how critical it is to fully fund and support the agencies that are responsible for protecting our food supply. It has been over four months since the first illness was identified and yet we just identified the facility and we still do not know definitively where the contamination occurred. In addition, the simple fact that this outbreak involves a foodborne bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics heightens the risk to the health of American consumers. The length of time already passed and the volume of this recall are outrageous, and it has already claimed the life of one American.

“We must invest in our public health infrastructure in order to identify outbreaks earlier, better protect the public health, and empower our food safety agencies to enable faster, accurate traceback. These agencies need the funding to fulfill their mission of protecting American consumers.

“But the House majority has slashed funding for the FDA and USDA, choosing to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy over investing in and improving our food safety system. By cutting their funding, we have limited their effectiveness and asked FDA and USDA to do more with less, and the impact of these cuts is starkly clear with this most recent recall. It is only because of the hard work of state and local health departments, the USDA, and CDC using creative traceback techniques involving the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System that we were able to identify this outbreak and trace it to a single plant.”

Consumers with questions about this recall can contact Cargill’s consumer relations by calling 1-888-812-1646 or the Food Safety and Inspection Service, at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_060_2011_Release/index.asp.