Cargill recalls ground turkey, suspends production at plant on Salmonella concerns
04 Aug 2011
Cargill Value Added Meats Retail, a business unit of Wichita-based Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation, has announced an immediate class I voluntary recall of approximately 36 million pounds of fresh and frozen ground turkey products due to possible contamination from Salmonella Heidelberg.
The recall covers production at produced at the company's Springdale facility in Arkansas for products produced from 20 February till 2 August 2011.
Cargill said it was initiating this recall as a result of its internal investigation and information from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that became available on 1 August 2011, as well as an ongoing US department of agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) investigation into multiple illnesses from Salmonella Heidelberg.
"Additionally, Cargill has suspended production of ground turkey products at its Springdale, Arkansas, turkey processing facility until it is able to determine the source of the Salmonella Heidelberg and take corrective actions", the company said in a statement.
Other turkey products produced at Springdale are not part of the recall.
Cargill owns four turkey processing facilities in the US and no products from the other three are involved in the recall.