http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/119207311467680.xml&coll=7
ConAgra refuses to recall potpies
Bacteria - Despite pleas from Oregon and Minnesota, the company issues
consumer alerts for poultry, but not beef, varieties
Thursday, October 11, 2007
ALEX PULASKI The Oregonian
ConAgra Foods Inc. is refusing to recall Banquet-brand and other
potpies tied to a national salmonella outbreak, rejecting direct pleas
by Oregon and Minnesota health officials.
The state officials say the company needs to recall all of its potpies
because the source of the salmonella has not been identified.
Doing anything less, they say, allows potentially dangerous food to
remain on the market and confuses consumers.
The company says a recall is unnecessary.
It contends that contamination is limited to its poultry potpies.
Risks can be eliminated, the company says, by instructing consumers to
cook the pies thoroughly enough to kill salmonella bacteria.
The dispute highlights a long-standing limitation in America's system
for safeguarding the food supply:
State officials who most frequently unearth the cause of foodborne
illness have no regulatory authority over food makers.
Federal officials can ask companies to recall food, but that process
can take days or weeks.
For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has come under fire
for waiting 18 days last month to request a recall after E. coli was
discovered in Topps Meat Co. ground beef.
This has been a year of a number of high-profile domestic food
recalls, as well as food and consumer-product warnings on imports from
China.
In the spring, ConAgra issued a massive recall of its Peter Pan and
Great Value peanut butter brands after a multistate salmonella
outbreak.
Public-health officers in both Oregon and Minnesota said they urged a
potpie recall in phone conversations with ConAgra executives Monday
and Tuesday.
Instead, the Nebraska-based company, with annual sales of more than
$12 billion, halted production and issued a consumer alert for its
frozen potpies containing chicken and turkey.
States, on the other hand, are telling consumers to throw out every
potpie under the Banquet brand as well as store brands including Great
Value (sold at Wal-Mart) and Kroger.
All are made at ConAgra's Marshall, Mo., plant.
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Harry
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