For Your Health

Just read this, and I thought I should share in case you don't read or watch the news. This could be serious as Dole is a huge and highly trusted company. Guess, go check your lettuce. Funny, you won't hear me say a darn word about mad cow disease, but E. Coli I find to be an issue...where are my priorities? Anyway, here you go!!


Dole recalls bagged lettuce after sample in Canada tests positive for E. coli
17/09/2007 9:14:00 PM
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SAN FRANCISCO (CP) - A division of Dole Food has issued an international recall of bagged salad after a sample taken from a store in Canada tested positive for E. coli.

Dole recalls bagged lettuce after sample in Canada tests positive for E. coli

Company officials say there have been no reports of illness.

The voluntary recall affects all packages of Dole's Hearts Delight salad mix sold in the United States and Canada with a best if used by date of September 19, 2007 and a production code of A24924A or A24924B.

Marty Ordman, a Dole spokesman, says the product was sold in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes and in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and neighbouring U-S states, starting the weekend before last.

The romaine, green leaf and butter lettuce hearts that went into the blend were grown in California, Colorado and Ohio, then processed at Dole's plant in Springfield, Ohio, on September 6.

Eighty-eight cases were distributed in Canada and 755 cases in the United States.

The company's move came a day after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned consumers not to eat Hearts Delight.

"Our overriding concern is for consumer safety," Eric Schwartz, president of the Dole Fresh Vegetable division said in a statement.

He said the company was working with U.S. and Canadian health agencies, as well as those in various states.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was talking with Westlake Village, Calif.-based Dole about the situation, agency spokesman Michael Herndon said.

The Canadian agency said it would be looking to find out at what point the salad blend, which is imported into Canada, became contaminated and see if any other products are affected, spokesman Garfield Balsom said.

Last year, an E. coli outbreak traced to bagged baby spinach was blamed for the deaths of three people and for sickening hundreds more across the United States and Canada.

State and U.S. authorities ultimately identified a central California cattle ranch next to spinach fields belonging to one of Dole's suppliers as being the source of the bacteria.

Food contaminated with this strain of E. coli may not look or smell spoiled but health officials say the bacteria can cause life-threatening illnesses.

Symptoms include severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea; some people can have seizures or strokes and some may need blood transfusions and kidney dialysis, while others may live with permanent kidney damage.

For more information, consumers and industry can call the CFIA at 1-800-442-2342, or TTY 1-800-465-7735, between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET, Monday to Friday.
Copyright The Canadian Press

Wow, two in one day! I'm on a role....not that its making it terribly easy for me since I don't actively have to really WRITE much!! hehehheehe

Cheers