That is 5,250 tons. Or, 184,800,000,000 Ping Pong Balls, or 40,000,000 iPhones, or 5,833 Smart Cars, or 1,300 Asian Elephants, or 1,900,500,000 Pennies –you get the point. According to my middle daughter’s boy friend, it would take you approximately 72,000 years to eat one mini meal a day.
Rich Products Corporation of Buffalo, New York is expanding its recall of various heat treated, not fully cooked frozen mini meals and snack items to more than 10.5 million pounds because they may be contaminated with E. coli O121, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. The expanded recall covers all products produced at the company’s Waycross, Ga. plant with “Best by” dates ranging from January 1, 2013 to September 29, 2014. Each product package above contains the establishment number “EST. 27232” or “P-27233” inside the USDA mark of inspection. The products subject to recall were produced between July 1, 2011 and March 29, 2013 then distributed for retail or restaurant sale nationwide. FSIS and the establishment are concerned that some product may be present in household freezers.
FSIS was notified of a multistate investigation of E. coli O121 illnesses on March 19, 2013. Food samples were collected from an ill individual in New York as part of this investigation, and tested by the New York State Department of Health Wadsworth Laboratory. At present, the outbreak includes 24 cases in 15 states that led to seven hospitalizations and one case of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), a type of kidney failure. A sample of a Farm Rich frozen chicken mini quesadilla product from a New York case tested positive for the outbreak strain of E. coli O121. Additionally, a sample of leftover Farm Rich mini pepperoni pizza slices product from a Texas case tested positive for the same strain, confirmed by FSIS lab technicians.
When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on the FSIS website at: www.fsis.usda.gov/FSIS_Recalls/Open_Federal_Cases/index.asp