State Lab Finds a Positive Sample, no human cases identified yet.
A
Washington state company is recalling sliced apples due to the potential for
Listeria contamination. The contamination was discovered by testing conducted
by Minnesota Health Department. A sample tested was found to be positive for Listeria monocytogenes.
There have
been no know Listeria outbreaks
associated with sliced apples, however these product had been recalled
in the 2012. Perhaps this is why MN Dept. of Health decided to pull this
sample…perhaps it was just somebody pulling samples. Was the level of
contamination significant? Studies have shown that Listeria can survive on apples and that it has grown on sliced
apples when that product was temperature abused.
How risk is
evaluated for a given product is rarely constant. This was the case with
cantaloupes, where Listeria was
probably not on the radar of those conducting a risk analysis, until the Jensen
related outbreak in 2011. And so now for companies packing fresh apple slice,
they too will need to include Listeria
as part of their hazard analysis, and with this, they will need to implement
environmental control measures in the processing environment.
The company
sold the recalled product to retail customers and because, in some cases, the
recalled product was shipped to regional distribution centers, Crunch Pak is taking
the extra precautionary measure of issuing this recall nationwide to assure
that consumers who may have purchased the product are properly alerted.
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