A California baby died and at least 10 other people were sickened in an outbreak of listeria food poisoning linked to ready-to-eat meat and poultry products including chicken feet, duck neck, beef shank and pork hock, they reported Friday. federal health officials.
Yu Shang Food, Inc., of Spartanburg, South Carolina, recalled more than 72,000 pounds of meat and poultry products linked to the outbreak, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some products were initially recalled on November 9.
Food was shipped to retail establishments across the country and was available online, and cases of illness have been reported in four states. The problem was discovered in October after routine testing detected listeria in food and the production environment.
Of the 11 people sick, nine were hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A California woman who was pregnant with twins became ill and both babies died, according to the CDC, but listeria was only found in a sample from one of the babies, so that child and the mother were included in the count, but the not another baby.
Interviews with sick people and laboratory results pointed to Yu Shang Food’s products.
Although the foods have been recalled, some of them may still be in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers. Products should be discarded or returned to the place of purchase. Refrigerators, containers and other surfaces that may have come into contact with food should be cleaned and disinfected.
People get sick from listeria poisoning when they eat foods contaminated with the bacteria. Symptoms may be mild and include fever, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. More serious illness may include headache, neck stiffness, confusion, loss of balance, and seizures.
Listeria poisoning is complicated, because symptoms can begin quickly, within a few hours or days after eating contaminated food. But they can also take weeks or up to three months to appear. People most vulnerable to getting sick include the very young, people over 65, and people with weakened immune systems or who are pregnant.
A separate listeria outbreak linked to recalled Boar’s Head deli meats is over, CDC officials said this week. That outbreak killed 10 people this summer and sickened dozens more.
