Thread: ConAgra recalls all potpies

ConAgra recalls all potpies

Salmonella - After having rejected health officials' requests, the company agrees to pull beef and poultry pies

Friday, October 12, 2007
ALEX PULASKI
The Oregonian

ConAgra Foods Inc. agreed Thursday to recall all frozen potpies manufactured under its Banquet and other brands, ending a tug of war between the company and health officials in Oregon and Minnesota.

The pies have been linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 165 nationwide, including at least three in Oregon.

State health officials had been pressing for a full-scale recall since Monday. But the company declined to take that step and instead warned consumers not to eat poultry potpies. It contended its beef potpies were safe.

The company's chief litigation attorney, Leo Knowles, told The Oregonian that the recall involves all ConAgra potpies manufactured at the suspect plant in Marshall, Mo. In a statement, the company said it changed position to "ensure the utmost clarity for consumers about the fact that they should not eat these products."

Oregon health officials welcomed the recall as the best protection for consumers.

"I think ConAgra had a chance to think it over and decided that what's best for public health is coincidentally best for their business too," said Dr. William E. Keene, a senior communicable disease epidemiologist at the Oregon Public Health Division. "They don't want to make people sick."

The recall also covers potpies sold under house brands at Albertsons, Kroger (sold at Fred Meyer), Western Family, Hill Country Fare, Food Lion, Great Value, Kirkwood and Meijer.

ConAgra's move came on the same day that a Minnesota mom, angry that the Banquet potpies believed to have sickened her daughter and dozens of others could still be found in stores, filed a lawsuit against ConAgra.

The company, based in Omaha, Neb., had maintained that better cooking directions were the remedy for the salmonella outbreak now tied to 165 cases in 31 states. The third case involving an Oregon resident was confirmed Thursday.

The company had asked retailers to pull poultry potpies from freezers as a federal investigation at the Missouri plant continued, but until late Thursday had rejected public-health officials' requests for a full-scale recall.

Baby falls ill

Attorneys for Amy Reinert of Sauk Rapids, Minn., whose young daughter suffered flulike symptoms and a seizure since tied to the salmonella outbreak, filed the first potpie suit against ConAgra in federal court in Minnesota.

Isabelle Reinert was 20 months old on Aug. 19, the day her mother found her temperature had spiked to 103 degrees. Amy Reinert gave her anti-fever medication, set up an appointment at an urgent-care clinic and watched Isabelle fall into a fitful sleep.

At about 10:30 a.m., Reinert said, the child went into convulsions and lost consciousness.

"I picked her up," Reinert recalled, "and said to myself. 'This is it. She's gone.' "

The ambulance trip to the hospital and the several days of recovery, Reinert said, was the worst experience of her life. Minnesota public health officials were not immediately able to tie the child's illness to potpies, but did so last week after three new illnesses were investigated.

Reinert said her family usually eats the Banquet potpies one to three times a month for two reasons: Her three kids like them, and "they're really, really cheap and always on sale."

USDA inspecting

A ConAgra spokeswoman did not return five telephone calls Thursday seeking comment on the lawsuit and the company's inquiry into the source of the salmonella contamination.

Since Monday, three U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors have been at work at the Missouri plant, which has been temporarily closed.

One of the lawyers representing the Reinert family, Bill Marler of Seattle, also filed suit earlier this year against ConAgra following a February recall of the company's Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter brands.

Then, as now, the culprit was salmonella, a bacteria that causes flulike symptoms including diarrhea, but can turn deadly for infants and the elderly.

Until late Thursday, Marler said he'd been baffled by ConAgra's refusal to issue the same type of voluntary recall it had with peanut butter.

"I am glad that ConAgra finally did the right thing and put consumer safety before company profits," Marler said.

Alex Pulaski, 503-221-8516; alexpulaski@news.oregonian.com

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/sto ... xml&coll=7

THESE RECALLS ARE GETTING RIDICULOUS. WHY DONT THEY CHECK IT BEFORE IT GOES OUT FCOL. AND THE GROUND BEEF RECALLS...GEEZ. IT GOT TWO EMAIL ALERTS JUST TODAY ABOUT TWO DIFFERENT COMPANIES IN TWO DIFFERENT STATES RECALLING THOUSANDS OF POUNDS OF GROUND BEEF. AND THEN A COUPLE WEEKS AGO THERE WERE LIKE TWO OTHERS... AND THREE WEEKS AGO WE HAD THE GROUND BEEF WITH THE METAL PIECES...OMG. NOW POT PIES. AND THERE WAS THE CAMPBELL'S SOUP. WTF? WHY DONT THEY CHECK IT BEFORE IT GOES OUT? OR BETTER YET RAISE THEIR SAFETY STANDARDS. IT'S GETTING SO YOU CANT EAT ANYTHING ANYMORE.

Well, we do not always have these kinds of things in our household (we have some serious food allergies here), but we did have some of the offending potpies, chicken and even ate a few, although we did not get sick.

The way I have always shopped and cooked has been very old-fashioned, which started as frugality, now has become necessity (I am allergic to sulfides, a preservative in many foods, and our son is allergic to peanuts and lactose intolerant). So I make things from scratch which has saved us from many food-borne illenesses which were the basis for most of these recalls.

The only thing I can personally tell people is to make it yourselves, it saves money and also potentially keeps your health safe as well keeps your hard-earned dollars out of the hands of employers who hire illegal aliens (such as fast food places, and companies like ConAgra and such). We do not even buy cookies, we make them (that's due to the allergies, but we also like them better).

Originally Posted by redpony353

THESE RECALLS ARE GETTING RIDICULOUS. WHY DONT THEY CHECK IT BEFORE IT GOES OUT FCOL. AND THE GROUND BEEF RECALLS...GEEZ. IT GOT TWO EMAIL ALERTS JUST TODAY ABOUT TWO DIFFERENT COMPANIES IN TWO DIFFERENT STATES RECALLING THOUSANDS OF POUNDS OF GROUND BEEF. AND THEN A COUPLE WEEKS AGO THERE WERE LIKE TWO OTHERS... AND THREE WEEKS AGO WE HAD THE GROUND BEEF WITH THE METAL PIECES...OMG. NOW POT PIES. AND THERE WAS THE CAMPBELL'S SOUP. WTF? WHY DONT THEY CHECK IT BEFORE IT GOES OUT? OR BETTER YET RAISE THEIR SAFETY STANDARDS. IT'S GETTING SO YOU CANT EAT ANYTHING ANYMORE.

Don't forget the revolving door of lettuce,tomatoes and spinach- one of those gets a warning every couple months it seems So here is where I'm at with this-storebought fruit and veggies=RISKY,storebought chicken and beef=Dangerous,storebought canned soup and peanut butter=More Danger.
That leaves me to believe China AND US manufacturers are trying to kill us Americans-Just kidding.
During the Peter Pan recall, I was on the phone with my sister,we were discussing the recall when I decided to look at the jar I had bought THREE MONTHS EARLIER to see if it had the lot number for the recall on it-yep,it did and yep by then I had eaten most of it

Rawhide!