Welcome to Prophesy Again
COMMENTARY: Let the diet reform be progressive. Let the people be taught how to prepare food without the use of milk or butter. Tell them that the time will soon come when there will be no safety in using eggs, milk, cream, or butter, because disease in animals is increasing in proportion to the increase of wickedness among men. The time is near when, because of the iniquity of the fallen race, the whole animal creation will groan under the diseases that curse our earth. {Counsels on Diet and Foods, 356}
The latest spate of egg-related contaminations could become the worst in decades, as the number of recalled eggs continues to skyrocket amid fears of a worsening salmonella outbreak.
How to know if you could be sick.
An Iowa egg farm has recalled 380 million eggs -- or 32 million dozen-egg cartons -- up from 228 million Wednesday.
"With the fact that contaminated eggs could still be in consumers' refrigerators, this outbreak could really be one of the largest linked to eggs that we've seen in 20 years," Caroline Smith DeWall of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said.
Hundreds of people have become sick from eating tainted eggs and one lawsuit has already been filed against the egg supplier, the Wright County Egg Farm in Galt, Iowa.
Wright County Egg announced a voluntary recall of 228 million eggs after they were linked to cases of salmonella poisoning around the country.
Nearly 300 cases of illness in California, Minnesota and Colorado have been linked to the dangerous strain of salmonella, and health officials are now looking for links between the people infected by salmonella poisoning.
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The eggs that are believed to be tainted were sold with 13 brand names: Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph's, Boomsma's, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemp.
The egg cartons were packaged between May 16 and August 13 and stamped with one of three codes: P-1026, P-1413 or P-1946.
Consumers who believe they may have recalled eggs should return them to the store for a full refund, said the company.
ABC News senior health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser said today that while the eggs could have been contaminated at the factory, they could also have gotten the bacteria from the chickens themselves.
He recommended cooking eggs not included in the recall thoroughly, while authorities investigate the contamination, and eating them immediately aftwerward.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that the number of people sickened as a result of the salmonella outbreak could be in the thousands. During June and July, about 200 cases of the salmonella strain were reported weekly, four times normal levels.
"We're seeing a large increase in the number of cases of a particular type of Salmonella," said Dr. Chris Braden, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. "It's pretty much blanketed the nation as far as we know."
The strain in question, Salmonella enteritidis, is particularly pernicious because it can affect the inside of an egg. The ovaries of a hen can be contaminated by the bacteria, passing the contaminant along to the whites and yoke of an egg as well as outside the shell, Braden said.
"The birds themselves aren't sick. The farmer doesn't even know what's going on. And in the meantime, it's producing eggs that look clean and fine," Braden said.
The federal government says its investigation into the source of the outbreak is ongoing, and while eggs are a prime suspect in many cases, other foods could also be involved. Officials have also not yet determined how salmonella got into the Iowa farm.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Egg Recall Expands
