March 2, 2007

US expands chicken breast strip recall to 2.8 million pounds

A recall of Oscar Mayer-Louis Rich chicken breast cuts and strips in the US has been expanded nationwide, the US Food Safety and Inspection Service said.

The announcement meant that roughly 2.8 million pounds of chicken meat would be recalled.

Carolina Culinary Foods, a West Columbia, S.C., firm, initially recalled 52,650 pounds of fully cooked chicken breast strips on Feb 18 due to possible bacterial contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.

The FSIS said the expansion of the recall of 6- and 12-ounce packages was based on additional sampling conducted by Kraft Foods and a non-government laboratory.

Consumption of food contaminated with the bacteria can cause listeriosis, a potentially fatal disease that can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness, nausea, miscarriages and stillbirths.