Agencies criticized for delayed response in ground turkey Salmonella outbreak

Federal health and food safety regulators waited 13 days before forcing Cargill Inc. to issue a recall on its ground turkey products contaminated with Salmonella bacteria.

According to a USA Today report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Dept. of Agriculture admitted to reporters late last week that they had nearly all the information they needed to connect Cargill’s Springdale, Ark., turkey processing facility to a nationwide Salmonella outbreak as early as July 21. The recall was not issued until last Wednesday.

That outbreak has cost the life of a California resident and sickened at least 76 other people since March 9.

Last week, Cargill issued a recall on 36 million pounds of fresh and frozen ground turkey products. The recall is the largest involving meat products ever issued by the USDA.

USA Today heard from several food safety advocacy groups which have offered sharp criticism of the way the recall was handled, particularly the delay in announcing any recall whatsoever.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest said the USDA had evidence possibly for months that at least some illnesses could be traced to Cargill’s facility in Arkansas. Rather than notify the public of that fact, it did nothing as victims of the Salmonella outbreak began to multiply.

The group said the USDA should have alerted Cargill to the likelihood that its products were involved in cases of Salmonella poisoning so the company could have potentially removed the products from the market.

Officials at the CDC said conflicting information among early victims in the outbreak caused the agency to delay notifying Cargill.

Since issuing the recall last week, Cargill has ceased production at the Arkansas facility until a source of the contamination is found.