Salmonella worries: Recalled egg total passes half a billion

Updated 24m ago
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

The nationwide effort to pull salmonella-contaminated eggs off the market expanded significantly Friday when a second Iowa egg producer, Hillandale Farms, issued a recall of 170 million of its eggs, according to Associated Press reports. That brings the total amount recalled by two producers to more than half a billion eggs. This makes it "among the largest egg recalls" ever, says Patricia el-Hinnawy, with the Food and Drug Administration.

The eggs recalled by Hillandale Farms of Pennsylvania were sold in 14 states under the brand names Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms, Sunny Meadow, Wholesome Farms and West Creek.

They were were sold in Arkansas, California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.

The type of salmonella found in the Hillandale eggs, salmonella enteritidis, is the same as that contaminating the eggs involved in the first recall, produced by Wright County Egg, also of Iowa, It's the most common form of salmonella in eggs, and although the genetic fingerprints of the salmonella in both recalls are similar, the Food and Drug Administration can't say yet whether the strains of the bacteria are genetically identical, said Jeff Farrar, associate commissioner for food protection with FDA's Office of Foods.

The FDA is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a more specific analysis, said Sherri McGarry, foodborne outbreak coordinator with the emergency coordination and response staff at FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

"We see this as a related recall," she said.

In the Hillandale recall, only eggs from plant numbers P1860 or P1663 and with the following "Julian dates" are affected by the recall:

P1860 — Julian dates ranging from 099 to 230

P1663 — Julian dates ranging from 137 to 230

A Julian date is based on the 365 day calendar, so that January 1 is number 1 and December 31 is 365.

Consumers should not eat the eggs but return them to the store for a full refund. Questions? Contact Hillandale Farms at 1-866-262-4208.

The company said eggs produced outside of Iowa were not affected. Hillandale Farms of Iowa, located in New Hampton, also does business as Hillandale Farms of Minnesota. There's also a Hillandale Farms of Pennsylvania and Hillandale Farms of Florida, a subsidiary of Cal-Maine Foods.

Wednesday, another Iowa producer, Wright County Egg, expanded a nationwide recall of its eggs from 280 million to 380 million after an outbreak of salmonella was traced to some of its facilities. An estimated 1,300 people have reportedly become sick nationwide.

Here's a Q&A about eggs and salmonella, and information from the Food and Drug Administration on the outbreak and recalls.

The latest contamination turned up as CDC and FDA investigated the salmonella outbreak linked to Wright County Egg. A cluster of illnesses in Minnesota traced back to eggs from Hillandale Farms.FDA investigators are at Hillandale Farms looking at the company's compliance with food safety rules for eggs, pest and rodent control, and at potential commonalities with Wright County Egg, McGarry said.

"We're looking at the clusters of illness as part of that overall nationwide outbreak investigation," she said.

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