Thread: Mexican Cilantro fecal Contamination Spurs Partial U.S. Import Ban

Recall Alerts

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• CILANTRO BUNCH, 1 BUNCH, EACH
  
  Affects: Kroger Stores located in: Greater Memphis area, Tennessee; Arkansas; Mississippi; Western Kentucky; North Carolina; Virginia; Eastern West Virginia; Eastern Kentucky; Southeastern Ohio;
  Reason: This product may be contaminated with Cyclospora cayetanensis and, if eaten, could result in severe illness to those who may consume this product.
  Recalled on: July-28-2015
  
  
  
• CILANTRO BUNCH, 1 BUNCH, EACH
  
  Affects: Kroger Stores located in Texas and Louisiana;
  Reason: This product may be contaminated with Cyclospora cayetanensis and, if eaten, could result in severe illness to those who may consume this product.
  Recalled on: July-27-2015
  
  
  
• KROGER BAC'N BUDS, 12 OZ; KROGER COARSE GROUND BLACK PEPPER, 17.1 OZ; KROGER GROUND CINNAMON, 18.3 OZ; KROGER GARLIC POWDER, 24.7 OZ
  
  Affects: Kroger Stores located in Georgia; South Carolina; Auburn, Alabama; Greater Cincinnati (including Northern Kentucky and Dayton, Ohio plus South Eastern Indiana); Central and Northwest Ohio; Northwestern Virginia panhandle; Michigan; Indiana (except SE Indiana, -Evansville-); Illinois; Eastern Missouri; Greater Memphis area, Tennessee; Arkansas; Mississippi; Western Kentucky; Hopkinsville and Bowling Green, Kentucky; Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee; Huntsville, Alabama; North Carolina; Virginia; Eastern West Virginia; Eastern Kentucky; Southeastern Ohio; Texas and Louisiana; Jay C, Dillons, King Soopers, Fry's, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, Food 4 Less, Smiths
  Reason: This product may be contaminated with SALMONELLA and, if eaten, could result in severe illness to those individuals who may consume this product.
  Recalled on: July-27-2015
  
  
• https://www.kroger.com/recall_alerts
  

F.D.A. Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts

The list below provides information gathered from press releases and other public notices about certain recalls of FDA-regulated products.

Not all recalls have press releases or are posted on this page. See Additional information about recalls for a more complete listing.For recall notices older than 60 days, see the Recall and Safety Alerts Archive.

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Date	Brand Name	Product Description	Reason/ Problem	Company	Details / Photo
07/28/2015	KellBran	Caramel Popcorn	Undeclared milk	KellBran Candies
07/25/2015	Kroger	Seasonings	Salmonella	The Kroger Co.
07/24/2015	Moses Lake Professional Pharmacy	Human and veterinary sterile compounded drugs	Sterility Assurance	Moses Lake Professional Pharmacy
07/24/2015	Instinct®	Instinct® Raw Chicken Formula for dogs	Salmonella	Nature’s Variety
07/24/2015	Teva Parenteral Medicines Inc.	Adrucil (fluorouracil injection, USP) 5 g/100 mL (50 mg/mL)	Potential presence of particulate matter	Teva Parenteral Medicines Inc.
07/24/2015	Bravo	Chicken Pet Food for Dogs and Cats	Salmonella	Bravo Pet Foods
07/23/2015	Akttive	High Performance Fat Burner Gold capsules	Undeclared Drug Ingredients	Life & More, LLC
07/21/2015	Osamu Corporation	Frozen Yellow Fin Tuna Chunk Meat	Salmonella	Osamu Corporation
07/20/2015	Vic's	Popcorn	Undeclared milk	Barrel O' Fun Snack Foods Co.
07/20/2015	Osamu Corporation	Frozen tuna (loin, saku, chunk, slice, and ground market forms)	Salmonella	Osamu Corporation
« ‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 › »

The list above provides information gathered from press releases and other public notices about certain recalls of FDA-regulated products.

• FDA works with industry and our state partners to publish press releases and other public notices about recalls that may potentially present a significant or serious risk to the consumer or user of the product. Not all recalls have press releases or are posted on this page.
• The posting of information on this page is separate from FDA's recall classification process. The weekly Enforcement Report lists all recalls after they have been classified by FDA. For more information about FDA’s product recall authority, process and classification guidelines, see FDA 101: Product Recalls.

Press releases issued more than 60 days ago are accessible in the Recall and Safety Alerts Archive. For more safety information in a specific product area, please visit the links below.

• Drugs: Additional safety information about human medical products can be found on FDA’s MedWatch page.
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• Medical Devices: A more complete listing of Medical Device Recalls can be found on FDA’s Medical Device Recalls page.
• Cosmetics: Additional safety information about cosmetic products can be found at FDA's Cosmetics Recalls and Alert page.

Recalls of raw (fresh and fresh frozen) oysters, clams, mussels, and whole and roe-on scallops

The safety of these products is ensured by the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference (ISSC), which consists of federal, state, and industry partners who administer the National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP).

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/

As a retired over the road truck driver I can definitely confirm these facts. I have been in truck stops where aliens are brought in by the bus loads and the bathrooms are filthy! They do not wash their hands and toilet paper is all over the floor. One would think that common sense would tell them that the paper goes into the toilet,but I guess not!! They don't even flush,it is disgusting ! TA Truck Stops are the worst because they are Greyhound stops.

Just because they banned it doesn't mean that it doesn't get shipped to another part of mexico to be sent here bypassing our inspection teams.

From the first story:

U.S. restaurant companies that use cilantro said they don’t expect to be affected by the partial ban. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., the fast-casual burrito chain that uses the herb in its guacamole, rice and corn salsa, said all of its cilantro currently comes from California.
“We’re not getting any cilantro from Puebla (or anywhere else in Mexico) right now, so there is no impact on us,” Chris Arnold, a Chipotle spokesman, said in an e-mail.
Taco Bell, owned by Yum! Brands Inc., also gets its cilantro from California, spokeswoman Virginia Ferguson said in an e-mail. Taco Bell uses cilantro in its pico de gallo, guacamole, salsa and Latin rice, according to its website.

http://www.alipac.us/f19/f-d-safety-...alerts-321720/

by BREITBART NEWS
4 Aug 2015

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — More than 380 people in 26 U.S. states have been diagnosed with a stomach illness tied to Mexican cilantro contaminated by human waste, two federal agencies said Tuesday.

It’s the fourth consecutive summer in which the intestinal infection cyclosporiasis has been reported in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration are investigating the cause of the latest outbreak, which appears to have begun after May 1.

The FDA said it suspects the contamination came from “contact with the parasite shed from the intestinal tract of humans” in the growing fields, contaminated water or harvesting, processing and packing activities. It causes diarrhea, nausea and fatigue which can last several weeks to a month or more if untreated.

Preliminary results indicate cases in Texas and Wisconsin can be traced to cilantro from the state of Puebla, Mexico, which was supplied to restaurants at which some of those who became ill dined, the FDA said Tuesday in an updated posting on its website.

Georgia reported clusters of the illness to the CDC. Federal officials said people were sickened in 26 states but declined to name the others.

Previous U.S. outbreaks of the illness have been linked to imported fresh produce, including cilantro from the same region in Mexico which was the subject of a partial ban imposed by the FDA on July 27.

Cilantro imported from the state of Puebla was linked to outbreaks of the stomach illnesses in the United States in 2012, 2013 and last year, the FDA said.

U.S. and Mexican health authorities investigated 11 farms and packing houses in Puebla and discovered human feces and toilet paper in fields and found that some of the farms had no running water or toilet facilities, the FDA said. Problems were found at eight firms, including five that were linked to the U.S. outbreaks.

The FDA has imposed a partial ban on cilantro from the region, accepting it for import into the U.S. only from approved companies during the summer months.

“If you are concerned go back to the store and ask the retailer where they purchased the cilantro,” FDA spokeswoman Lauren Sucher said. “If in doubt, throw it out.”

Washing it or attempting to clean cilantro may not remove the pathogen that causes illness, although cooking at high temperature will reduce the likelihood of illness.

http://www.breitbart.com/national-se...y-human-feces/

9/4/15

http://www.alipac.us/f12/salmonella-...-285-a-322909/

North Carolina Produce Dealer Sues Supplier of Mexican-Grown Cilantro

BY NEWS DESK | SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

A Wilmington, NC-based produce dealer known as Farmer’s Friend is suing Don Hugo Produce Inc., its Texas supplier of cilantro from farms in Puebla, Mexico. The litigation was brought because that Mexican cilantro has been contaminated with Cyclospora, a parasite which has caused the diarrheal illness known as cyclosporiasis for each of the past four seasons.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Mexican investigators have reported finding “deplorable conditions” at farms and packing houses in the Puebla area.



The 32-page complaint filed against Don Hugo quotes from the U.S.-Mexican findings about conditions that “included human feces and toilet paper found in the growing fields and around facilities, inadequately maintained and supplied toilet and hand washing facilities (i.e., no soap, no toilet paper, no running water, no paper towels) or a complete lack of toilet and hand washing facilities; food-contact surfaces (such as plastic crates used to transport cilantro or tables where cilantro was cut and bundled) visibly dirty and not washed; and water used for purposes such as washing cilantro vulnerable to contamination from sewage/septic systems.”

Those findings led FDA to call for the Mexican cilantro being detained at the U.S. border without physical examination.

Farmer’s Friend charges it was misled by Hugo Produce because it presented third-party audits that the cilantro grown on the farms outside Puebla, Mexico, was safe. It says those claims were “fraudulent and deceptive” and resulted in many U.S. consumers being sickened by the parasite and suffering cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea as a result, some requiring hospitalization.

The federal lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in McAllen. The court’s jurisdiction stems in part from damages of $75,000 or more being sought in a dispute between parties from different states.

Since about May 1, the single-celled parasite has caused intestinal infections in 495 Americans from 30 states. Cluster investigations in Texas and Wisconsin have specifically identified cilantro as the suspect vehicle. The 2015 outbreak is following a very similar pattern to each of the past three years when cilantro from the Puebla region of Mexico brought the parasites north of the border.

Farmer’s Friend, represented by attorney Jason R. Klinowski of Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff & Brandt LLC in Birmingham, AL, states that it was provided with documentation in June 2014 showing that the farms in the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Aguascalientes were compliant with Global Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) standards for food safety.

With those certifications, Farmer’s Friend agreed to buy cilantro from growers in Aguascalientes. It also received certificates from Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Fisheries and Food for the cilantro farms.

However, in 2015, Farmer’s Friend claims that Hugo Produce began selling them cilantro from unapproved farms in the State of Puebla, including 26 loads this past June and July.

FDA issued the import alert on July 28, 2015, calling for “Detention Without Physical Examination of Fresh Cilantro from the State of Puebla, Mexico.” The alert identified cilantro from Puebla as the source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak in the U.S. and, according to the complaint, “identified fecal contamination of growing areas and poor hygienic practices of workers that harvest the produce as likely causes of the outbreak.”

The Cyclospora parasite can only be seen with a microscope. It is spread when feces attach to food and water and are then consumed. Cyclospora infects the bowel and often results in explosive diarrhea, along with cramps, bloating, gas, and fatigue, in addition to vomiting, body aches, fever and other flu-like symptoms. Unless treated, it can take two months to recover.

Farmer’s Friend is seeking triple damages based on multiple allegations, including gross negligence on behalf of Don Hugo.

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/0...rown-cilantro/