Company Recalls 5 Million Pounds of Raw Almonds

Fox News, Wednesday, May 19, 2004

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120375,00.html

WASHINGTON — A California company is recalling 5 million pounds of raw almonds sold nationwide after the Food and Drug Administration received seven reports of food poisoning.

Paramount Farms Inc. of Los Angeles said Tuesday the recalled almonds may contain salmonella , a harmful germ that can cause food poisoning. The recall covers 2.7 million packages of raw almonds sold under the brand names Kirkland Signature, Sunkist and Trader Joe's.

The FDA received reports that the seven people in Alaska, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Utah were sick with salmonella enteritidis, a type of food poisoning. In five cases, consumers had bought the almonds from Costco Wholesale Inc. in Oregon, Paramount said in a statement.

Young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are especially vulnerable to infection from salmonella. In some cases, it is fatal.

The company noted that the those who became sick have recovered.

"While no salmonella has been found in Paramount products, we have taken this step out of an abundance of caution and to assure our customers and consumers of the quality and safety of our products," said David Szeflin, Paramount's vice president of operations.

The recalled almonds sold under the Kirkland Signature brand are specifically labeled as raw. They were sold in 3-pound, lay flat plastic bags and stamped with a "best before" date from 8/21/04 to 2/8/05.

Recalled almonds sold under Trader Joe's and Sunkist brands were marked with "best before dates" of 8/21/04 to 3/15/05. The almonds sold by Trader Joe's are in 1-pound packages, labeled as "nonpareil variety almonds. Those sold by Sunkist are in 10-ounce bags and are marked as "raw natural whole almonds.

Consumers who have the recalled almonds are asked to return them to the stores where they bought them. Anyone with questions about the recall can reach Paramount on Wednesday starting at 3 p.m. EDT by calling 1-800-496-5168.

Paramount said it is cooperating with federal regulators as their investigation continues.

I have been eating Kirkland raw almonds all week. I have no idea what use by date the bag had as I put them into plastic containers and freeze them. I will continue to use them as I have not experienced any problems. I certainly do not have a weakened immune system.

Might not be a bad idea to roast them a bit before eating. While samonella might not kill you, it sure will ruin your fun for several days.

Symptoms:
"A person infected with the Salmonella enteritidis bacterium usually has fever, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea beginning 12 to 72 hours after consuming a contaminated food or beverage. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most persons recover without antibiotic treatment. However, the diarrhea can be severe, and the person may be ill enough to require hospitalization. " - the CDC http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/dise...o/salment_g.htm


The risk from eggs:
"The baseline model for shell eggs presented in this report simulates an average production of 46.8 billion shell eggs per year in the U.S., 2.3 million of which contain Salmonella Enteritidis. The consumption of these eggs results in a mean of 661,633 human illnesses per year ranging from 126,374 to 1.7 million cases per year (5th and 95th percentiles) as shown in Table 3. It is estimated that about 94% of these cases recover without medical care, 5% visit a physician, an additional 0.5% are hospitalized, and 0.05% of the cases result in death. Twenty percent of the population is considered to be at a higher risk for salmonellosis from Salmonella Enteritidis (i.e. infants, elderly, transplant patients, pregnant women, individuals with certain diseases) because they may be more susceptible to infection and because they may disproportionately experience the manifestations of Salmonella Enteritidis infection." - US Dept of Agriculture http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPHS/risk/


Persistence of the problem -
"The incidence of Salmonella Enteritidis, a common Salmonella serotype, has not changed significantly since 1996, demonstrating that additional efforts are needed to control this pathogen. " - http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetR...id=137-04292004

wow, they could have been advertising them as "net carbs: 0", after all if you can't "digest" it...

sorry, not poking fun at the people who got sick just poking fun at the companies trying to get rich off low carb.

Hmm, thats a lot of almonds. I will eat them.

brobin