Cargill recalls more ground turkey products

As a precautionary measure, US meat producer Cargill has issued a voluntary recall of approximately 185,000 pounds of 85-percent-lean fresh ground turkey products produced at the company’s Springdale, Ark., facility due to possible contamination from Salmonella Heidelberg.

Cargill initiated the recall as a result of one confirmed test sample taken by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) during a post-August 3 recall review of the processing facility, which yielded low levels of the same Salmonella Heidelberg strain that appears to match the strain previously associated with human illness.

Cargill has voluntarily suspended production of ground turkey products at its Springdale, Ark., turkey processing facility until additional corrective actions, incremental to those implemented as the result of the August 3 recall, can be identified by the company and reviewed and approved by USDA. Other turkey products produced at Springdale are not part of the recall. Cargill owns four turkey processing facilities in the US and no products from the other three are involved in the recall.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we are acting quickly in response to USDA’s sample testing,” said Steve Willardsen, president of Cargill’s turkey processing business. “Although there are no known illnesses associated with this positive sample, it is the same Salmonella Heidelberg strain that resulted in our voluntary recall on Aug. 3, 2011.As a result of this latest USDA test result, we have suspended ground turkey production at our Arkansas facility until additional measures can be identified, approved by USDA, then implemented, which is similar to the process we previously employed when working with the agency.”

Cargill is contacting its customers to make certain they know which of their ground turkey products are affected by this recall. Consumers are urged to return any opened or unopened packages of ground turkey items listed on Cargill’s ground turkey recall website (www.cargill.com/turkey-recall) to stores where they were purchased for a full refund.

Source: Cargill